Animorphs: The Fugitives
by aizxana
Summary: First of Four stories. Four strangers are rescued from an alien spacecraft and given the morphing power by a renegade Andalite. They are given two tasks: Don't let Visser Five catch you. And find the Animorphs.
1. Introduction and Chapter 1: My Name Is

**Animorphs: The Fugitives**

_This story takes place fairly early on in the series (round about books 15/16/17). It introduces some brand new characters, who are the stars of the story, rather than Jake, Ax and the other Animorphs themselves. So I'll warn you now that it's not for die-hard Canon fans. The story is set in K. A. Applegate's world of the war between the Yeerks and Humans/Andalites. It uses all the rules for morphing, and even introduces a few new ideas. It's the story of a group of strangers, who get abducted by aliens, and find themselves thrust into the middle of a terrifying war. Their mission: Find the Animorphs whilst on the run from Visser Five. There's going to be four stories in all, each told by a different member of the team. This first one's by Samantha._

Introduction

My name is Samantha. My name is Samantha Goddard. I can tell you this because it doesn't matter who knows. The Yeerks know everything there is to know about me. And if they don't know, they will know soon enough. The Yeerks know my name. They know my age. They know what school I went to, where I live, my national insurance number, my bank details, my school grades, my favourite food, my…shoe size! So what I tell you about myself and several of my friends doesn't matter because the Yeerks already know. Yeerks. Evil, mind controlling aliens with a view to infest the whole of humanity. And they would do anything – _anything_ – to get their hands on us. Which is why we're on the run.

Let me back up a little. At least set the mood a bit before I tell you the whole story before I've even started.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to escape your life? Quit your job or school or whatever? Get out of the boring, humdrum, grey life of todays' society? You know why all those big Hollywood flash-bang-special effects adventures are so popular? It's because of that need to escape reality. School kids, office workers, people in dead-end jobs or a future of nothing but ten years of homework, studying and exams, and then forty years of work to look forward to – they're the ones who love this sort of stuff. Those who look for something more meaningful in life. Be a cop. Be a secret agent. Go time-travelling. There's very few people who do get this opportunity, and their names are usually Tom Cruise or Bruce Willis. Or even Samantha Goddard. And like me, Samantha, they sometimes get abducted by aliens.

"Ok," you think. "Someone go and fetch this girl a straitjacket. She needs a padded cell, and fast!"

Well let me assure you, I'm not mad. I'm probably one of the most level headed girls you'll ever meet, even if I say so myself. And I want to let you all know, that everything I'm about to tell you is true. It's a story of an adventure, packed with plenty of danger. A tale of fugitives on the run – with a couple of brain-infesting aliens and special powers thrown in for good measure. This morning, I was your average English senior school student having breakfast and reluctantly waiting for the post to arrive with my dreaded exam results. And now, all my priorities and my whole perception of reality have been transformed.

Chapter 1

The walls exploded behind me. A shockwave, trembling beneath me. The sound of the explosion echoed around the small, square room in which I and several other strangers were being held. Fire engulfed the room, the heat chasing the fire, scorching the bare skin on my body like a dragon breathing on my face. Sheets of plastic and metal from the walls curled and broke off, flaking into the air. They entered my mouth. I coughed, trying desperately not to choke on them.

"Help!" I cried. Every breath was torture. "Someone…get us out of here! Can anyone else…hear me!"

"Arrgghhh!" I thought I heard another voice through the explosions, answering my cries. It was faint - I wasn't totally sure if I'd even head it, but I knew there were others in the room with me, and I needed to know if they were still alive. I tried to move, but my wrists and ankles were pined down to the table by some kind of shackle. I called out again, lifting my head from the metal table on which I was lying, trying to locate the source of the scream. All I could see was air full of dust and smoke, and flames dancing around the small room. Large, shadowy shapes moving in the hallway to the left of me. More bangs, more explosions. What sounded like lasers being fired. A piece of debris fell towards me. I pulled against the thick metal restraints that strapped me to the table, trying to dodge it. The debris – which was what looked the burnt remains of a car gearstick – landed on the table, brushing my already burned hand, before falling to the floor. In fact, most of my body was boasting burns of some degree or another. I looked down and was surprised to see I wasn't wearing the clothes that I was this morning, but a rather dodgy looking quasi-futuristic ensemble. A tight, white, sleeveless top, like a boob-tube. An almost identical garment took the role of skirt. Very nasty indeed. Definitely not the Prada look. And far too revealing for my liking. But, despite this, no embarrassment registered. There were far too many distractions to take my mind off my clothing – like the fact that it seemed like a few minutes ago I was eating Cheerios in the kitchen and thinking that I might have failed biology. And now, of course, I was strapped to a table in the centre of a burning room, whilst huge, seven-foot shadows ran up and down the corridors outside.

"Help!" The voice! There was defiantly another person alive in the room! A wave of adrenaline surged through my body, giving me the strength to respond. I coughed again, clearing my windpipe.

"Is someone there?" I called. "Is someone coming to help?" I listened, trying to block out the crashes and rumbles of the fire-engulfed spaceship and searching for the human voice.

Another explosion. Smaller, this time. A shot, from some kind of large firearm. Nothing like the huge earthquake-like damage the earlier explosion has caused. But it did not stop a two-foot wide hole appearing in the ceiling above me. "Ahh!" I yelped and cursed as a chunk of metal missed me by inches. However, as I forced my red and tear-blurred eyes to look upwards, I noticed that the hole had created a kind of vacuum – a suction to the room on the next floor. I felt the hot air around me lessen as it was rose upwards into the space above me. The room cleared a little as the dust was sucked upwards. It gave me a clearer view of the room, and made it easier to distinguish different sounds.

"Arrgghhh!" The cry! I heard it again! I tilted my head towards the sound. Another person, a guy, it seemed was lying on his back on a table. Strapped to it – just like I was, and wearing the same weird costume I was – minus the top.

"Hey, you alright?" I shouted. The guy beside me struggled to respond. He seemed to be in a lot of pain, too.

"Just," the guy answered. "The heat… can't stand it." The guy sounded worse than I did. I had to find a way to escape the restraints, to get the others out of this furnace.

"Are you hurt?" I shouted. Dumb question. Of course he was hurt. Anyone with one hundred metres of the explosion would be hurt - burnt, cut, thrown or grazed. Blood ran down my face from a deep gash in my forehead. I could taste it in my mouth. I spat it out and tried again. "Are you injured badly?"

"My leg…it hurts!" the guy gasped. I rolled over, as much as the straps would allow me. The smoke was clearing, and I could make out clearer shapes in the room. I turned towards the guy beside me. His right leg seemed to have a nasty burn just below the knee. But, as I peered through the dust at his left leg, I swear I almost passed out. A gaping gash, almost a foot long, had opened up in his leg. I could see the whitish-red of the blood-stained bone beneath the skin. I resisted the urge to gag. "You'll be ok." I tried to encourage the guy. His wound was serious, but there was nothing I could do about it. All I could do was try and keep him conscious – by keeping him talking. "What's your name?"

"Philip," said the guy. "Philip Lawless."

"Do you know anyone else here?" I asked.

"Ferdie – my brother!" Philip choked. "Heard him a second ago…I need to… get him out of here!"

"Where is he?" I asked. His voice was becoming more erratic.

"Think…he's on the table next to me. There's…another girl too."

"We're both ok, I think!" Another voice, a different voice. It must have been the guy's brother, Ferdie.

The voices were weak and faint, but it was becoming easier to hear. The explosions and crashes were starting to die down. Whoever – or whatever – it was that was causing the rumpus were obviously retreating. Or perhaps winning. Possibly even dying. I had almost no idea what was going on outside the walls of this room. I stretched my neck up as far as I could and gazed through the slowly disappearing dust to the other side of the room. Sure enough, I could just make out the shadows of two further figures, both lying on metal examination tables just like me and the guy next to me. We seemed to be in a line – three figures to the left of me and another table to my right, although no one lay on that table.

"We'll get out of here", I shouted to whoever could hear me. It was very difficult to hold any kind of conversation with three strangers strapped to tables in the middle of a burning room. "Does anyone know what's going on? Where are we?"

"The last… thing I …remember, we…." Philip trailed off.

"Hey!" I shouted, trying not to panic. I could just make out Philip's lips moving, but he wasn't making any sound. He was loosing consciousness. He closed his eyes and gasped for air. There was nothing more I could do for now, apart from finding a way to escape. I rolled over, ignoring the stabbing pain of my red, tender skin, and tried to catch the eye of the guy named Ferdie and the girl next to him. "Can either of you two move? I mean, are you both still strapped down?"

Ferdie answered. "Neither of us can move!" His voice was plumy, posh. Funny how you notice things like that when strange figures are shooting at each other in the corridor. He looked over at his brother, and cried out when he saw his leg. "What's happened to my brothers' leg! Good god, is he ok? I should think…jeez! What on earth is that?" Ferdie gasped, as he turned his face away from his brother and towards the hallway. I wondered what could distract his from his brother's lifeless form, but, I swear, when I saw when Ferdie was looking at, my jaw actually dropped, like a scene from a cheesy B-movie.


	2. Chapter 2: Figures

Chapter 2

Two figures were emerging from the dust as they entered out little room. But they didn't look like any figures I've ever seen. My first thought was that the police had arrived to save us. But then I realised that the police don't have four legs. Nor do they have horns. Nor tails. The creature appeared to trot towards us on its four hooves. I gazed at it, mouth opening and shutting like a fish. It looked like some kind of small horse, or perhaps a deer. But it also had a somewhat humanoid torso and weak looking arms – like a centaur. What I'd thought were horns were actually bendable stalks with – I yelped – eyeballs on the ends! The stalk eyes were moving this way and that, clearly independent of each other. As the creature turned towards me, I got a clearer look at its face. If the creatures' chest and arms resembled a human, its face certainly didn't. The head was roughly triangular, with a slender neck. It had two further eyes in the middle of its face, large, glittering green and almond shaped. The nose appeared to be three short vertical slits. The ears were long and tufted, like a horses'. There was no mouth. I guess it didn't eat like we do. The whole creature was covered in bluish brown fur which was thicker on its horse like parts, and thinner and shorter on its face and torso. It wore no clothes, apart from a sash which seemed to hold an array of strange-looking handheld weapons. I glanced back at its face, which was now facing directly towards me. I felt a chill rush through me as we made eye contact. I thought the eye stalks were bad enough, but then I saw the tail. It was long and thick, like a muscular kangaroo's tail. It arched up over the creatures' head, poised and ready. On the end of this tail was a large, razor sharp blade at the end. The blade looked a little like a small, flat rhino's horn, but smoother, like the ivory of an elephant's tusk. I had no doubt that creature could do some serious damaged with that tail if it wanted to.

I glanced over at the others. Ferdie's eyes were wide open, unblinking. His brother still lay unconscious. The girl at the end was struggling to get a better view. "Oh My. Gawd!" she cried. It was the first time she had spoken. "What the 'ell is that!". The girl's voice was the complete opposite to Ferdie's – East London. Cockney. As I said, funny what you notice when you're staring at a four eyed, scorpion tailed, blue furred deer.

--Keep calm. Do not worry.-- A voice! The creature was speaking to us! But I couldn't hear its voice with my ears – I heard it in my head! Telepathy! The Cockney girl must have worked that out too, because I heard her screech,

"Blimey! It's speaking to me 'ead!" She looked at Ferdie. "Did you 'ear that voice in your 'ead?"

"Yes, I heard it. I 'eard it in me 'ead'!" Ferdie replied. I laughed at plumy Ferdie putting on a Cockney accent. Then I laughed again because I couldn't believe I found an unknown stranger taking the mick out of another stranger funny, whilst what seemed to be an alien stood by talking to our minds.

--Yes, I am speaking to you with my mind. A practice known as 'thought-speak'.-- The voice was low and profession, like an army major, or a doctor. It seemed to be male. He spoke again, addressing us all.

--I need to get you all out of here, otherwise you will die.--

Well, this guy was certainly wasting no time in getting straight to the point. He trotted over to a box on the wall next to me. He opened the plastic covering and typed something into a strange-looking keypad. Suddenly, the cuffs on my wrists snapped open! The alien pressed a couple more buttons, and all the cuffs on the other guys' beds tables opened to. Ferdie and the girl at the far end jumped to their feet immediately. I sat up slowly, rubbing my wrists and brushing the dust off my face.

--One of you appears to be injured,-- the alien remarked, looking at Philip's bleeding leg. Smart guy. --My soldiers will help him. You three,-- he said, nodding at myself, Ferdie and the other girl, --You need to follow me. Quickly. We have very little time. But first, I need you all to gather around me and press your hands against this device.-- The second creature, a taller version than our friend, stepped over fallen debris and scoped up the unconscious guy in his arms, and bought him over to the first creature. He looked at the four of us, then turned to the other alien.

--Sir?-- he said, in same thought-speak voice as the first one. --Wasn't there another of them? My briefing told me there were five humans.--

"There are only the four us, at least, that's how many of us I've seen". I said, looking at Ferdie. He nodded. But the Cockney girl walked up to the alien and glared at him.

"What is goin' on, bruvver?" she asked. "What are you? And where on earth are we!"

The alien seemed to smile in a mouthless way, using only his eyes. --We are not on earth,-- he said, kicking what was once part of the ceiling out from under his hoof, apparently not offended that the girl had not said 'who'. He raised his tail higher. --And you need to get up, fast. You must do as I say. We will help you.--

I raised my eyebrows. "Help us?" We don't even know who this guy was! "How can we trust you? We have no idea what is going on, where we are or who anyone is – the four of us are strangers!"

--There are others. They are coming for you. Come round me, press your hands against this device.--

I stopped arguing and jumped to my feet, trying not to cut my bare feet on the rubble. "What's that?" I asked. The smaller alien, who seemed to be in command of the other guy, had just removed a small, blue cube-like object from his sash.

--It is called the Escafil device. It is your only way out.-- The object was a shimmering blue box. The surface moved like the surface of a bubble. The corners of the cube were rounded and smooth. It looked like nothing I'd ever seen before. I looked up at the alien. "What does it do?" I whispered. I had no doubt that something this beautiful and so unusually would carry some kind of immense power – just like the aliens themselves.

--It will do something to your bodies that will help you to escape from here. There are other aliens looking for you, and they must not catch you. It would be very helpful if they did not see you as you are.-- The alien seemed to be speaking these last words to his soldier, rather than us. I guessed what he was about to do was pretty controversial – a quick, no turning back decision made in the heat of the action – that his colleague did not approve of.

The three of us exchanged glances. "Let's do this." I said, trying to sound like I knew what I was doing. There seemed to be no choice for us. The situation was absurd anyway, touching a strange box seamed like nothing but a funny ritual. We gathered round the alien, who held the cube in the palm of his left, many fingered, hand. I placed my hand on the side nearest to me. Ferdie, and the other girl placed their hands on different sides. The taller alien reluctantly placed Philip's hand – red and sticky from the blood that was still gushing from his leg - on another side. Then the first alien appeared to take a deep breath, and placed his hand on the top of the cube. Instantly, an electric shock surged through my body, creating a tingling sensation. I gasped. I tried to take my hand away, but my arm wouldn't let me. After a couple of seconds, the tingling resided, replaced by a feeling of heat. My already burnt hand trembled as I struggled to keep it in place. Suddenly, the heat disappeared. I took my hand away. The injured guy woke with a start, breathing heavily and trembling. --It is done.-- said the alien.


	3. Chapter 3: A Strange Choice

Chapter 3

What happened next, I would remember for the rest of my life.

--We can't let you be found,-- the alien told us. --The creatures who are looking for you know who you are and they know that you are human. If you can blend in as one of us, it will give you a little more time to get away. The Yeerks will be busy searching for humans, and they will probably guess that I will have given you the morphing technology, but it will buy us some time. It should also renew your strength and deter the Yeerks from pursuing you so easily.--

"What are you on about bruv?" asked the Cockney girl. I wanted to ask the same thing. I had barely understood a word of that conversation. Blend in as one of them? What were we supposed to do – paint our bodies blue and ride around on horseback? And Yeerks! What were they! As for this morphing technology – if that was what he'd said – I couldn't even comprehend that!

--You need to follow exactly as I say. It may seem strange, but it is your only way to escape being killed or infested--. I saw Ferdie's eyes widen in shock and confusion. Infested! The alien continued. --Barnod here will guard the door.-- He mentioned towards the other alien. --I need you all to put your hand on my arm and concentrate on my form. Visualise my body in your head. Think about becoming me.-- I stared. Was this some kind of joke? What was with this guy and touching things? Philip seemed to be thinking the same thing. "Touch you?" he exclaimed. "Why should we do that?"

--That device you touched has given you a great power, which I shall explain to you later. For now, you just need to do as I say. Touching my skin and concentrating on my form will allow you to absorb – or acquire – the DNA of my form into your own bloodstream. You can then carry on that concentration – and take my form. You can acquire and morph any animal you touch.--

"Take your form? What does that mean?" I asked.

The alien smiled his mouthless smile. --It means that you will become me. You will, by a formulaic zero-spacial translation, your genetic code will…-- He stopped at our blank expressions. --Your bodies will literally turn into a copy of my own.--

"Oookay," said Ferdie. "Someone please pinch me. This has to a dream".

--This is not a dream,-- said the second alien, called Barnod, in his deep, rich thought-speak. --And Eramas,-- he said rudely, -- if you want to continue with this irresponsible, illegal escapade of yours, I suggest you make these apes get on with it.-- He glanced at a small, black, handheld object, a bit like one of those really old mobile phones. --A group of Hork-Bajir Controllers are heading towards the main elevation shaft. They will soon find us. I suggest that I carry out my further duties and rendezvous with the second Fighter.--

--Yes, do that, Barnod. I shall be in touch with the rest of the crew within three standard hours. Make sure you get all of us out. I must make sure these humans escape before the enemy capture them. We must assume they know that they are human.--

--Yes, Sir,-- replied Barnod. With that, he saluted by raising his tail above his head, and turned on his heel and walked out of the room. He seemed pleased to have left – again, I had the feeling he did not entirely agree with his superior on this issue.

Even though I had no idea what these guys were talking about, I could tell that although the aliens appeared calm and in control, their thought-speak voice was becoming rather tense. I had to make a decision. This morphing, turning into another creature, was obviously some kind of advanced alien technology, unknown to the human race. Either that, or I really had gone mad and this was my padded cell.

"I'll go first," I said. "That way, if anything happens during the, err, process, you guys will know to run." I tried to sound strong, like I knew what I was doing. In truth, I was clueless. My head swam with unanswered questions. My mind kept laughing at me, not believing I was accepting what was going on. I forced myself back to the matter in hand.

The others nodded. The alien, Eramas, stepped towards me and held out his arm. It looked weak, and its' shoulder, although human like, did not seem to be jointed as freely as a humans. There were numerous cuts and grazes on it, one of which seemed to be spilling an inky blue blood.

--Concentrate on my form,-- he said. --Picture my form in your head. Concentrate on what I am, what I represent--.

I did so. I had no idea what this guy represented, other than the last half hour of complete insanity, but I managed to draw up a fairly clear picture of his alien shape in my head. It wasn't too difficult. Bladed tails and eye stalks tend to have a way of sticking in your mind. I closed my eyes and pictured his face, his four eyes, his strange nose. I pictured his blue, horse like body. As I 'acquired' him, I felt his muscles slacken. I didn't know how long to concentrate for, the guy hadn't exactly told us a great deal about this whole thing, but I felt my mind start to drift after about ten seconds anyway. I opened my eyes and took my hand from his arm. A moment later, the alien seemed to come out of his trance and stood upright again.

--Good,-- he said. The others around me were staring at me and the alien. Philip glanced nervously towards the door. I guessed their minds were bombarded with all this new information, questioning their idea of reality, just like me. It occurred to me that, even though I had just made a life changing decision on their behalf, I still didn't even know all of their names.


	4. Chapter 4: Metamorphosis

Chapter 4

The alien stood back and narrowed his eyes. --Now, picture my form again, and let the changes begin. It won't hurt, but you might feel that you are thinking differently when it is complete.--

I took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled. I felt like I was about to go into surgery, where a strange doctor would perform some unknown operation on me.

"What's going to happen?" I asked.

--I don't have time to explain it all now; I will give you as much information as I can once we are safe. You just need to concentrate on morphing my form.--

I had no idea what to expect. Part of me still couldn't believe it. Another part of me wanted to laugh out loud at the madness of it all. But another part of me, a small bit usually at the back of my mind usually reserved for times of great stress, or danger, was telling me I had to deal with it. This was reality. This was what your have to do. Otherwise you could die.

I concentrated again on the image of the alien, and braced myself for a flash, or bang, or some kind of strange wormhole opening up in front of me. But nothing happened. I snorted. This was all just a dream. But, as I caught the eye of the Cockney girl, her expression changed. Her eyes widened, and she let out a series of short, sharp breaths. "Jeez!" she cried. "Your skin, sista! It's turning blue!"

I looked down at my hand. A wave of blue was spreading up my hand, deep, rich sapphire, just like the aliens'. "Whoa!" I let out a cry of surprise and disbelief. The blueness stopped abruptly, making my arm look as if it has been dipped in blue paint. --You need to hold the concentration,-- said the alien. --Morphing can only occur when the image of the creature is held in one's head.--

I did as the alien said and resumed concentration. The blueness started again, spreading further and further up my arms. The clothes I was wearing also turned blue. I looked at the others. Their faces were showing various expressions: disbelief, confusion, and horror.

"My god…" whispered Ferdie.

As I realised that the process of morphing was literally changing the very shape of my body, I guess I assumed the whole thing would be smooth and gradual – like you see in Hollywood films. But I guess I assumed wrong, because, without warning, a long, muscular tail shot from my behind! Popped out – like a snake poking out of a hole! The tail was already covered in fur – the same bluish-tan fur that was rapidly appearing all over my body.

"This is, actually, rather insane," said Ferdie conversationally. I grinned at him, with a mouth in which I could feel my teeth and tongue dissolving, my lips fusing together. It was a bizarre feeling. Very bizarre. Like my mouth was full of rapidly melting butter.

Then, the major changes started to happen. The blue fur and tail had just been a warm up! My insides began to squelch and squash together, feeling like I had eaten a huge, live spider. Organs shifted and changed, new ones appearing, others melting into nothing. Bones dissolved – for a second, I couldn't stand! My legs were like jelly! I tried not to panic. I caught sight of Ferdie's face as I fell. He was as white as a sheet, whispering, "No, no, no" over and over. The girl was screaming, her hands clenched into fists and her knuckles as white as Ferdie's face.

"Stop it! It's awful!" she cried, as two stalks jumped out of my head. Eyes popped out of the ends. I could see out of them! In all directions! Unfortunately, this only let me see the other sickening changes that were happening to my body. My legs were growing thick, strong bones, and I was able to stand again. But, and I looked behind me with my new eyes to check, I had four! My original right leg seemed to be splitting in two – with both parts slowing becoming more deer-like. One my left side, however, the leg remained as one, although it too was becoming more deer-like. I watched in repulsion and fascination as three dainty hooves formed out of the end of my three legs replacing my toes, like a fungus growing in time-lapse photography. All of a sudden, a forth leg shot out behind my right leg! It was fully alien-like – blue furred, sharp hoofed. It didn't hurt, but it felt as if it should. Like a dentist giving you a pain killer before yanking out a tooth. I could feel the changes happening, but somehow the pain wasn't reaching my brain.

The changes were coming faster now. My bum was growing, stretching out my spine to accommodate my new legs and tail. My clothes dissolved and disappeared into my skin. Burns and injuries healed as they formed healthy, new skin. The pain in my hand disappeared as the red-raw skin became blue and intact. My ears stretched outwards and slid up the side of my head. My hearing suddenly improved. I could hear Ferdie retching as he crouched behind a fallen plank.

The morph was almost complete now. My eyes twisted inside their sockets, reforming into almond shapes. My brown irises turned an emerald green. Eyelashes and brows were sucked into my head, along with my dark brown hair, like a person sucking up spaghetti. Extra fingers popped from my hands, my nostrils stretched into the strange alien nose. And finally, a wickedly sharp blade appeared at the end of my tail. The morph was complete. I was a human girl in the body of an alien.


	5. Chapter 5: Identical

Chapter 5

"That's impossible," said Philip. "This is all some weird hallucination. I don't believe what I'm seeing!"

--You'd better believe it, Philip! I'm a grade-A alien now!-- Thought speak! I could speak to them with my mind! Well, I guess now that I didn't have a mouth any longer, I had to be able to communicate somehow! There were other differences, other than my physical form, too, I realised. I suddenly felt more confident. Optimistic. Not only had I taken on the alien's form, I had also attained its' psychological make-up!

--Wow,-- I whispered. --This is so incredible! You guy have got to try this.-- I took an experimental step forward, my shiny black hooves stepping nimbly over the wreckage. It was all so easy, so graceful. I moved my new tail, blade glistening in the light of the spotlights. What a tail it was! So strong, so powerful! A nifty bit of evolution had taken place somewhere along the line for this race. This tail was the ultimate weapon.

Ferdie seemed to think so too. He jumped back as I struck my tail forwards over my head. "Watched out!" he exclaimed. "That tail is not a toy! Pretty cool looking, though. When do I get one?"

--As soon as you have all morphed,-- said the alien. --In fact, we are running out of time. You can see that your comrade is safe. You must now do as she did, and acquire and morph me.--

The others were almost tripping over themselves to acquire the alien. Philip cautiously placed his injured leg on the ground and hobbled over to him. I could see drops of sweat forming on his brow. The wound must be quite serious, I thought. Either that, or Philip was terrified.

--One at a time,-- the alien said. The others formed a short line in front of him and began to acquire him. Philip went first. His eyes narrowed as he concentrated on the alien. The alien went limp, his glittering green eyes glazing over. Then went Ferdie, smirking as he did so.

"Well," he said. "This isn't too weird. Excuse me, good sir? Do you mind awfully if I could borrow your DNA briefly in order to escape from a race of crazed, insane aliens?"

The girl, whose name I still didn't know, went last. She eyes were wide with fright as she gingerly placed her hand on the aliens' arm. After a few seconds, she snatched her hand away. The alien snapped out of his trace and into action.

--Good,-- he said. --Now, quickly, you must morph me.--

The others became to concentrate again. The girl was muttering "Oh, god, oh god" over and over. Ferdie was looking excited. Only Philip looked serious. It seemed like he was viewing the whole like some kind of military exercise. A bit like I was, I supposed. This was the job, get on and do it. Otherwise, die.

I stood in front of the others to give them some encouragement as the charges began to show. --That's it guys,-- I said. --It feels pretty unusual, but it doesn't hurt. The weirdest part is when the second lot of eyes appear.--

The morphs began to take place. Ferdie's was the most dramatic – he suddenly fell forwards onto his face as his legs were sucked up into his body.

"Omph!" he groaned, as his face hit the floor.

The girl had shut her eyes. But I imagined she could probably still feel what was happening – her whole face was twisting and warping into a hideous mixture of human and alien.

Philip was gradually turning blue, like I had been. But his legs were also changing at the same time, slitting into four as my left leg had done. There was a sickening crunch as the bones changed direction. Philip yelped. I tried not to wretch.

Ferdie had managed to stand up again now – his new, alien legs were appearing fast and he scrambled to get control of his new muscles, to push himself out of the dust and blood on the floor. But he had yet to turn blue, or change his facial features – so now resembled a rather good-looking centaur from Greek mythology.

Philip's injured leg was now as good as new as his blue skin rapidly covered the wound. A tail shot from his behind, the blade forming fast. Then, his hair dissolved into nothing, and his ears stretched like mine had done into the horse-like alien ears. His morph was almost complete – his was the fastest of the four.

Ferdie's was taking a little longer, but he was getting there. The girl was still whimpering – but in thought-speak.

--You're doing great, guys,-- I said. I realised I felt responsible for them, especially now that I had morphed the alien already. Which was silly – I hardly knew them!

We stood there in the smoke and rumble. Five identical aliens. One original, lightly flecked with small injuries here and there. Four perfect, indistinguishable copies. It was an amazing feeling – exciting, exhilarating, unbelievable and terrifying.

--Follow me,-- said the alien. --We don't have much time.--

We galloped off down the corridors. Another wave of adrenaline rocketed through my veins as I felt the pure, fantastic power of my legs. I was graceful, supreme, incomparable. A freak of nature. But a fabulous one at that. It was all so easy, so effortless. Here I was, jumping over wreckage and soaring over holes in the floor as if I was an Olympic athlete! A runner, high jumper and dancer all in one! --Yaaahhh-hahhhh!-- I yelled. It was a total, insane, rush!

The alien galloped in front of me, slashing and swiping with his tail at various strange aliens which tried to block our way. I heard him yell in thought-speak as a laser-like beam burned his flank. Deep, growling, alien voices echoed throughout the corridors.

"Andalite!" cried a voice behind me.

"Get them!" shouted a terrifying, eight-foot dinosaur-like creature – moments before the alien knocked his tail-blade against its head.

"There's loads of them! I thought there were only two Andalites, Sub-Visser!"

"Well you obviously made a mistake, you fool!" yelled another dinosaur. "And make sure you find the humans too – they're bound to be with another Andalite!"

I looked back at the others behind me, who looked equally overwhelmed. Their hooves pounded on the shiny surface, razor-sharp blades held high above their heads. I could hear their thought speak crying put different yells and shrieks of excitement and disbelief. Ferdie, who was right behind me on my tail (almost literally!) seemed to be loving the whole experience. His crazed though-speak laugh resonated through my head as we turned a blind corner at top speed, dodging another dinosaur. We galloped down the darkening hallways, dust flying, hooves pounding, and no idea of what lay ahead of us.


	6. Chapter 6: Eramas

Chapter 6

--We are the Andalites,-- the creature told us. --My name is Captain Eramas-Corion-Jarvis. Commander of Operation 965. Captain of the Andalite fighter, the _Siro_. It was we who invented the morphing technology. My mission was to rescue you humans and return you to earth whilst recovering the Escafil Device stolen from us by the Skrit-Na.--

The six of us had morphed back into our human bodies - another strange experience to add to a growing number of strange experiences that day. We had finally made it to temporary safety, having sped through the remains of what we had now learnt was a space ship, owned by a race called the Skrit-Na. We had leapt over falled appliances, squeezed through holes in walls. Dodged laser beams and fallen through collapsing ceilings. And we had tripped over the bodies of alien races, and skidded on their blood. Huge, lizard like creatures, covered in horns and blades. Vast centipedes with gaping, bloody mouths, now lying in a pool of their own stinking green slime. I had tried not to look at the bodies, instead, just to concentrate on keeping the alien in sight, and make sure the four of us were not left behind – or killed.

We were now all congregated in a large, oval shaped room filled with advanced looking computer equipment. The walls were blacked with smoke and soot, and some of the equipment was letting off sparks. I hoped the things would explode in my face. I'd had enough of explosions for several lifetimes. Huge transparent, vertical tubes stood around the perimeter of the room, leading to some kind of air-lock in the ceiling. Hmm. Like I'm an expert on alien technology.

"Where are we?" asked the girl. "What is this place? Not just this room…this whole ship? That is what it is, innit? A spaceship?"

--That is correct,-- said the Andalite Eramas, speaking with a tone of voice and looking at the girl as if she was a young child. --A B6-Category Transporter belonging to a race called the Skrit-Na.--

"The what?"

--The Skirt-Na,-- repeated the Andalite. --I believe your race is familiar with them?--

I frowned. "Um, I don't think so. Humans aren't exactly masters of the intergalactic alien race encyclopaedia."

Eramas looked slightly surprised. --But I have seen portrayals of the mature phase of this species in your primitive intra-planetary broadcasts! The grey skin? The large eyes? A two-legged body not dissimilar to your own?--

Philip smirked. "Television. Greys. We don't know for sure – that is, apart from us – that the alleged existence of aliens is true. Any portrayals are more entertainment purposes only and any resemblance is purely coincidental."

"Good grief, Philip," said Ferdie. "You sound like a lawyer."

--Well, anyway,-- interrupted the alien, --whether you are familiar with this race or not, it remains the situation that we are currently on board one of their ships, and must find a means to escape before the Yeerks catch you.--

"How can we escape?" I had no idea what the situation was. My head was a jumbled mix of screams, cries – and turning into weird alien centaurs.

--If my knowledge of the Skrit-Na space technology is correct, I believe this is the main entrance hatch to the escape modules,-- said Eramas. --These cylinders dock with the modules, and can be assessed by means of a pass-code.-- The alien glanced at the huge tubes – which had a series of small screens on the wall behind them. --I can easily hack them,-- he added as an afterthought. --I shall be back in approximately seven standard minutes.-- With that, he trotted off to examine one of the screens.

"Well," said Ferdie. "This is all fabulously surreal. Anyone want to tell me what time the Mad Hatter is having tea?" He picked at his skirt-like garment – ripped and dirty, and frankly, not doing its job too well. He snorted. "I should be playing against Tidworth right now. Biggest game of the season and _what_ am I doing? Sitting in an alien space-craft, and having fun turning into scorpion-tailed horses!"

I tried to restore some normality to the situation. "Ok, guys," I said. "We have no idea what we're doing here, but I suppose we can try and act slightly conventional and introduce ourselves properly?"

Ferdie stepped forward. I noticed he was quite tall and muscular. He had a mane of rather wild looking strawberry blonde hair, through which he kept brushing with his hand. His tanned cheeks were dusted with golden brown freckles. His teeth were remarkably clean and white as he smiled his mischievous smile. His green eyes twinkled cheekily as held out his hand. So not my type. Honestly.

"Ferdinand Horatio William Lawless," he announced proudly. "Call me Flawless".

"Right, er, Flawless," I said, wondering how he lived up to his nickname. "I'm Sam – Samantha Goddard. Call me, well, Sam." I smiled back. Good way to break the ice, if anything in that last hour hadn't done so already.

Philip nodded at me, and the rest of the group. "Philip Lawless. I'm Ferdie's older brother." Philip, despite being older than his brother, was slightly shorter, through not as muscular. His mouse-brown hair was shorter and neater than Ferdie's, in a sensible short-back-and-sides. He wasn't as tanned, nor as freckly as Ferdie, but his eyes were darker and deeper – more like the Andalite's. Both brothers stood tall and dignified, with a graceful stance that seemed to have been developed through years of good breeding, rather than as if they were trying to impress.

"I'm Ashima Mahakani," said the girl with the Cockney accent. "I like being called Asha". She tossed her black hair over her shoulder. She looked around fifteen, maybe a year younger than I was, although – looking at the numerous piercing holes in her ears, I guessed she probably liked to dress older than that.

"Cool", I said, looking at everyone. "Nice to meet you all!"

"I feel like I'm at a Fighting Fat session", muttered Asha.

"It's 'Fighting Fit'," corrected Ferdie. I smiled. It was nice to see we could at least have a laugh, considering what was going on around us. Nice, and normal.

"So here, we are, everyone together in an alien space craft," said Flawless Ferdie. "Four random Brits. We're like the entrants for Big Brother or something. Not that I watch it," he chortled.

"Does anyone remember what they were doing before all this happened?" I asked. "I can't think how we got here."

"Well, it wasn't by bus, alright," said Asha.

"The last thing I remember, I was at the kitchen –"

"And suddenly the tooth fairy appeared?" offered Ferdie. Philip gave him a sour look. I gave him a 'may I continue?' look.

"Yes, well, as I was saying, I was sitting at the kitchen table, eating breakfast, and waiting for my exam results to come through. They were due to have been posted out yesterday, so I should have got them this morning."

"How'd you think did?" asked Ferdie.

"Terrible. But, of course, I never got them. Because one second I'm sitting eating Cheerios, and the next second I'm waking up to an explosion five feet away, strapped to a table, wearing the latest from Gucci Reject, and being rescued by Mr. Spock."

"Pretty much what 'appened to me, babe', said Asha. "One minute I'm making a cup o' rosy for Mrs. 'Iggins, and the next I'm 'ere in Wonderland!

Ferdie tossed his shaggy reddish hair. "I was getting ready to go to a polo match – we were half-way through loading the horses".

"Polo?" I asked. These guys were getting posher by the minute.

"That's right. Rather looking forward to it, I was."

Philip spoke up. His voice was a little more natural than Ferdie's. "I was just driving along on the motorway from London. Been in the City for the week and was going up to see Ferd's match. I went to overtake a car – and suddenly I'm here! To be honest, I thought I had crashed or something and this was heaven.

"Gosh," I said. "We're probably not far from heaven, actually." I tried to make a joke, but something with what Philip had said didn't seem right. Too much information. Too chatty. I pondered for a moment, then let it pass.

"So basically, we were all living our lives, doing everyday things, and then suddenly, blink, we're on a spaceship," I said.

"No beam of light, no moondust, no X Files music. It would have been like nothing had happened," replied Philip.

"Expect of course we're on a spaceship."

"There is that."

So we were all in the same boat. None of us had been doing anything dodgy – like searching for UFOs or hanging around a government training facility when it happened. None of us were in any kind of position of authority. With the possible exception of Philip, we were all just kids. I began to feel a kind of kinship for this little group. Two strangers, two brothers, swept up in the middle of a strange battle on an unknown spaceship.


	7. Chapter 7: The Situation

Chapter 7

I heard some hoof steps and turned round. Eramas the Andalite was trotting back over to us. The others looked up.

--I have managed to hack into the Skrit-Na data base,-- announced the Andalite. --It appears that the ship has suffered serious damaged caused by Yeerk Bug Fighters. However, most of this damaged was caused to the master Zero Space engines and the hull, rather than the transportation levels or the escape hatches.--

I tried to make sense of this new information, and, remember past conversations, so I asked the Andalite,

"So, your saying, this ship is unstable, but we can still escape? Before these, what do you call them…Yeerks capture us?"

--Yes,-- said the Andalite. --I must brief you on the Yeerk situation and what you can do when I am sure that these modules are functional. But first, I need you to recognise your home planet of a list of recent co-ordinates so that the modules can return you to your planet.-- He motioned us to follow him to one of the screens of the wall.

--Primitive,-- he muttered. --No thought-speak connections of any kind.--

Eramas bought up a list of combinations of strange figures and symbols. He played around with the computer for a bit, and the symbols suddenly translated into standard English letters and numbers.

"Isn't it useful how all aliens can speak English?" Ferdie asked no'one. "You'd at least have thought they'd speak French."

"How do you know all aliens speak English, Flawless?" said Philip. "You've only met two."

--Which of these co-ordinates is your home planet?-- asked the Andalite, pointing to the lists of seemingly random digits. I blinked.

"I have absolutely no idea," I said. "I didn't even realise our planet had co-ordinates. We just know it as 'Earth'."

--They don't teach you the most basic of intergalactic geography in your Academy?-- asked Eramas, clearly taken aback.

"Well they teach us the names of the planets in our solar system," said Asha. "And stars and that, if you take that class. But not all this mumbo-jumbo."

The Andalite thought for a moment. --If you can tell me some basic information about your planet, I should be able to select your planet from the list by a process of elimination. This list contains all co-ordinates reached within the past thirty-six hours by all Skrit-Na vessels in this sector of the galaxy. One of them must match your planet.--

"I see," I said. "The vessel that abducted us should have recorded its destination, and you can find it on that list?"

--That is correct. These letters stand for different pieces of information about the planets. This part of the co-ordinate here--- he pointed to the third quarter of a co-ordinate, --tells you how advanced the life forms of the planet are. And these numbers tell you how many other planets in their solar system. A rather odd way of categorising planets – no mathematical basis at all – but the Skrit-Na have different priorities to most species in the galaxy. I know a little about Erath from our records, but not enough to distinguish it from this comprehensive list. Now, if you could tell me some facts about your planet, it should help me work out which is yours.--

We started spilling out a series of random facts about our planet. Some basic, like Asha's "it's got blue water and blue sky", to Philip's comprehensive analysis of the Earth's geographical structures and mineral content. I gave my share of fundamental information, like the population of Earth was around six billion, and that humanity had engaged in two world wide wars in the last centaury. Ferdie was barking out useless facts like he'd swallowed a text book.

"Ninety-five million miles from the sun," said. "The chief gases are nitrogen and oxygen – 78 and 21"

The Andalite was furiously tapping away, eliminating co-ordinates. --Narrows it down,-- he kept telling us. --Narrows it down.-- Slowly but surely, the list became shorter and shorter, until, after about fifteen minutes, the Andalite suddenly cried, quite out of character,

--I've got it!--

"Eureka." Ferdie said dryly.

--Co-ordinate Beta-1911-Raskilin Level-78367294.--

"What on Earth does that mean?" asked Asha. "I mean, what on the Skrit-Na ship does that mean?" She laughed at her little joke and tossed her long black hair.

--The co-ordinates tell us: one sun, nine planets, one habitable planet with one moon. Rasklin Level is the level of your species' intelligence and technological advancement. I do not know what the last eight digits mean.--

"Is Rasklin Level good or bad?" I asked.

--Rasklin was the name of the individual know discovered the first of this level – a race known as the Olbartar. They were a race obsessed with religion and cult.--

"We're the same category as a race of Bible-belters. Great," muttered Asha.

"Excuse me," said Philip, "but I'm what you call a Bible belter. So how do you think that makes me feel?"

"Do I look as if I care?" She was clearly getting fed up.

"Guys, please!" I said, exasperated. "We're not going to get anywhere if we start bickering like this.

The others shut up. "Ok," said Philip. His eyes met the aliens'. "What do we have to do to get back to earth? And what this situation with the Yeerks?"

Eramas stiffened for a second, and then relaxed. --We don't have much time. I hacked into the Skirt-Na communications switchboard whilst I was searching for co-ordinates. I found evidence that suggest that the Yeerks know that you are humans who have the morphing power.--

"Who are the Yeerks?" I asked.

--The Yeerks are a race of parasites,-- said Eramas. --In their normal states, they have no useful bodies or senses. They are like small, grey slugs – blind and deaf. Yeerks live by taking the body of another useful creature and enslaving them.--

"My God!" gasped Asha. "And they're coming after humans? Is that right?"

--Yes. The Yeerks have already enslaved many species throughout the galaxy – the Hork-Bajir, the Taxxons, the Gedds. Now they are turning to humans. There are far more Yeerks than there are host bodies. Only the most important Yeerks are given hosts. But with a planet such as yours, containing billions of potential hosts, the Yeerks are beginning to infest in much larger numbers.--

"How to they control us?" asked Philip.

--The Yeerks enter the host body through the ear canal. They release a chemical from their body that dulls the pain. Their bodies stretch out, pushing other organs and bones aside as they slide deeper and deeper towards the brain. When the Yeerks reach the brain, they flatten their bodies and sink into the many crevices in the organ. They latch onto neurones. They read the brain like a computer screen. They gain complete and utter control of the host – moving its' limbs, speaking through its mouth or by thought-speak. Eating for it, performing necessary bodily functions for it. Complete, total control.--

I felt sick. A race of parasites, invading earth. "And what about the host body? Are they aware of what is happening to them?"

--Completely. This is one of the true horrors of the Yeerk invasion. The host body is constantly aware of what is going on, but they are unable to do anything about it. They cannot call for help. They cannot move their own arms, legs or tail. They can only watch as the Yeerk uses their bodies to enslave and infest their friends and family.--

Ferdie swore softly. "Evil. Pure evil," he said.

Eramas started fiddling around with the controls some more. --We have very little time. I shall tell you what you need to know, and then I shall have to send you on your way.--

"You're not coming with us?" I asked.

--I have my orders to remain on this ship.-- He hesitated. --When you are back on earth, it will be very difficult to distinguish between who is a Controller – someone controlled by a Yeerk, and who is not. The Controllers act just like the host would. Anyone could be a Controller. We estimate that around five percept of your planet is infested, although this figure seems to be increasing.--

"Five percent?" I was appalled. "But that's one in every twenty people!"

--The Yeerks do have some weaknesses, however. They must leave their host bodies every three days to feed on what are called Kandrona rays – rays of nutrition that imitate their own sun. They feed on these rays in complexes called Yeerk Pools. These are tanks and lakes of various sizes in which the Yeerks swim in their natural state to soak up the rays. If a Yeerk is denied its' Kandrona rays, a painful and lengthy death will follow.

--There is something you must know about the Yeerk military hierarchy. The Yeerk in charge of the invasion of earth is known as Visser Three. He is a ruthless character, and will stop at nothing to engage in all-out war on earth. He is held back by Visser One – the most powerful Yeerk short of the Council itself. Visser one ensures that the invasion of earth remains quiet and inconspicuous.--

"A back door entry," Philip nodded.

--Visser Three is also famous for another reason. He is the only Controller to have infested an Andalite body. He alone has the power to morph. He is an abomination.

--Another controller you may meet is Visser Five. We do not know much about Visser Five, other than he has a Hork-Bajir host. He has been newly promoted from Sub-Visser Eighteen.--

"What's he got to do with us?" I asked.

--Visser Five answers directly to Visser Three. He is in charge of the operation to retrieve the morphing technology. He learnt that, early today, a newer model of the Escafil Device – the cube one must touch to attain the morphing technology – had been stolen by the Skrit-Na. This cube is an recent update of the original version – it gives the individual the power to morph more quickly, and to include in their morphs various types of artificial skin, and the ammunition sashes that we Andalites wear. The Skirt-Na are a species famous for their obsessive hoarding and collecting of both alien technology and bodies and have been after this particular technology for years. It was this race that abducted you humans and, unsuccessfully, tried to test the Escafil Device out on you all. The Yeerks heard that a device was in the hands of the Skirt-Na, and launched a fleet of Bug Fighter ships, and, under command of Visser Five, to steal the cube. They want the cube not for it's value, however, but as a weapon.

--Luckily, my ship was on a simple reconnaissance mission is this part of the galaxy. We received new orders from the High Command who had intercepted Yeerk communications. We were to highjack the Skrit-Na transporter, remove any Yeerks present, and recover the morphing cube. It has so far been successful – the only problem is that Visser Five has learnt that there are humans on board with the morphing power. He will stop at nothing to capture and infest you.--


	8. Chapter 8: Fugitives

Chapter 8

The Andalite gave us a little time to consider the situation as he worked to programme one of the escape hatches.

"This is unbelievable," said Ferdie. "Absolutely incredible."

"Innit." Asha. I wasn't sure if this was a term of agreement or not.

I left the two of them to their conversation and glanced at Philip. He was staring into space, an unreadable expression on his face.

"You ok?" I asked.

"I can't believe I'm doing all this again," he muttered,

"Doing what?" I doubt whether he had met another bunch of warring aliens in his lifetime.

"Battle," he said. "Command. Orders. Missions. I thought I'd left it all behind. Thought I'd try and make a clean start. Now, I'm here, in the mist of battle all over again."

I wasn't sure what he was talking about, but I felt uncomfortable asking. It was his past. We'd all suddenly changed in the last hour and a half. This morning, we were normal kids and young people doing everyday normal things. Normal chores. Normal secrets. Normal battles of our own. Now, we were thrust into the middle of a gruesome war, and were fugitives from a mind-controlling alien war general. Who cared if one of us has a bit of baggage?

I heard a sudden noise behind me; a swoosh of gushing air. I turned. A large, car-sized vessel had been sucked down one of the transparent tubes. It was an oval shaped pod, silver in colour, with large reflective windows and the front. It was standing on four little legs, which made it look a little like a cartoon pig.

--Hurry!-- shouted the alien. --This module is suitable for your transportation. You must leave immediately! I will give your final instructions as I programme the co-ordinates.--

We ran over to the module. There was a round hole in the side and a sliding door. I let the others in and climbed in myself. The inside of the pod was very plain, just a couple of small, retro-style seats and a screen and some controls in front of us.

Eramas stepped over to us.

--You must reach the other humans,-- he said.

"Other humans?" I asked?

--There are five other humans on your planet with the Andalite morphing technology. From our last contact with Earth, we have heard that they were given the morphing power by a renegade Andalite cadet, Aximilli-Esgarrouth-Isthill. This cadet and these five humans are the only resistance on earth at this time, before our fleet arrives to support them. You _must_ find them! You are fugitives now, on the run from Visser Five. You will not survive without the other's protection.--

"How the heck are we meant to find them?" shouted Ferdie. "We don't even know who they are! And when will this fleet of yours arrive? We don't what to be caught up in this whole thing for the rest of our lives."

--Our people have recovered the DNA of the last five individuals who gained the morphing power from a device that reached the co-ordinates of earth,-- said Eramas, completely ignoring Ferdie's question about the Andalite fleet. --It contains a simple transmitter that records and broadcasts the DNA of individuals back to the laboratories of the Andalite home world, or the closest Andalite ship. My soldiers are now incepting the records of your human census, to find the names of these individuals. We will encrypt and transmit them to this escape module on a secure line as soon as we can. But you must not share the names of these individuals with anyone! If they fall into the hands of the Yeerks, then Earth's only resistance will be captured and infested! Visser Three will stop at nothing to get this information. Luckily, most of the time, we Andalites keep our technology very private.--

Eramas pulled out a small device from his sash, which looked somewhat like a portable television. It appeared to have no controls. However, the Andalite stared at it for a moment or two, and then held the screen up to our eyes. It was a map of a city.

--This is where the Escafil Device used to give the humans the morphing power was recorded in action last. I have translated it into a topographical map for your convenience. This is where you will find the Resistance – and the main Yeerk pool complex.--

I stared at the screen. "Can you, I don't know, zoom out or anything? I don't recognise that city." Eramas stared at the device again, and the screen suddenly showed a map of the Earth. A little flashing dot indicated the place where the morphing cube had last been activated.

"America." I said to the others.

"Obviously!" Ferdie. "It's always the States, isn't it? Never Britain."

"It's on the west coast of America. Around two-hundred miles from the state capital.Over five thousand milesin total."

"Five thousand miles!" gasped Asha.

"Oh come on. You didn't expect it to be London, did you?" asked Philip.

--Once you land back on earth – I have programmed the module to take you back to exactly whence you came – you will have less than twenty-four standard hours before Visser Five and his troops have prepared and landed on Earth. You will need to use your morphing power to find the Resistance. Acquire some useful morphs for your planet, both for travelling and for battle, and make your way to these human soldiers. Never stay in morph for more than two hours, or you will remain trapped that way. Beware. Visser Five will soon learn your identities and will try to track you down. You are fugitives now.--


	9. Chapter 9: The Resistance

Chapter 9

Eramas blinked his huge green eyes and closed the door. --Good luck,-- he called. Suddenly, the escape module's engines roared to life with a deafening boom.

"Ahhh!" I cried out as the pod was suddenly sucked up the transparent tube. I looked through the clear Perspex-like window above me and watched as a hole – an airlock – opened to allow the pod through. I looked down into the hall below. Eramas was galloping out of the room, weapons in hand.

I closed my eyes as the craft accelerated into the empty vacuum of space, and sped, on auto-pilot, towards Earth.

Hours passed. The others were asleep, exhausted from the days' adventures. I couldn't sleep. Too much filled my mind. I had gazed out to the window for a while, staring into space. Gazing into a galaxy, I realised, that was more filled with life than I had ever imagined. Events from the day passed before my eyes. The explosions. The alien. The morphs. The information. It seemed like a lifetime ago that I was at home, nervously awaiting my GCSE results. I realised I didn't care about the results any more. My future did not consist of classes and careers. It consisted of alien battles and escapism.

Unexpectedly, a loud bleeping sounded. Ferdie awoke with a start.

"What's that?" he asked. The others woke too.

"I think it's the receiver." I fumbled about with what looked like a futuristic radio, no idea how to work any of it. The Andalite hadn't exactly given us a manual.

Suddenly, an image and some words appeared on a screen next to what I thought was a radio. We stared at the photo. Formal, passport style photos of people. Five kids, younger than us. One dark haired and strong looking. One pretty, blonde, willowy girl. One geeky looking dirty-blonde haired boy. A Spanish looking guy who looked about twelve. And a stocky looking black girl with braided hair and dark eyes. Below the photos read some names. I won't tell you their whole names – I needed to keep their identities a secret. But I can tell you their first names. Jake. Rachel. Tobias. Marco. Cassie. Earth's only resistance.


	10. Chapter 10: Back To Reality?

Chapter 10

I stepped clumsily over a cowpat and tried to sweep my hair out of my eyes. It was just breaking dawn, nearly twenty-four hours since we had been abducted, and I was crossing the field that is a short cut to my house. I shivered in the cool spring dawn air – I was still wearing the hideous outfit the Skirt-Na had chosen for me. I tried to think of a speech that would satisfy my parents about my whereabouts, but I couldn't concentrate. My mind raced with imaged of Andalites, Yeerks and death. I tried to block out them out, but it was difficult. Everything I remembered was true, and we couldn't afford not to believe any of it.

The four of us had finally arrived back on Earth, after about sixteen hours of flying. Funny how it takes a complete day to travel halfway round the world, yet less than that to travel tens of thousands of miles through outer space. But we had made it. We had survived a harrowing and incomprehensible ordeal, yet this was only the beginning. The module had taken us back to the last place on Earth the Skirt-Na had visited – where they had abducted us unawares. A small town just outside Leeds, in Yorkshire. My house was in the southern part of the town, near the motorway. My family – just myself and my parents – had just moved here from Hampshire. Asha had told us that she had been staying with relatives during the school holidays and was meant to be returning home to London today. She had quickly grasped that fact that she wouldn't be going back home to London anymore. According to Philip, their house was nearby, just outside the town itself. I had suggested we meet up in a couple of hours, around lunchtime. Just enough time to catch some sleep and make our preparations for leaving. He had given me directions on how to get there. The directions were from a driver's point of view. He either didn't realise I wasn't old enough to hold a licence, or his was deliberately distracting me from acquiring an animal and making my way there cross country.

Philip had remained unconvinced about the whole mission. He was determined to ignore the whole experience and wipe it off as a strange nightmare. But I and the others knew that we couldn't take that attitude. We'd seen and been through more than enough to completely screw with our ideas of reality. Aliens. Whoa. Morphing? Been there, done that – but there was a whole lot more to come. A bumblebee suddenly buzzed into my face, snapping me out of my trance. I could morph that, I realised. The Andalite had barely given us any information about morphing, other than the fact that we could morph anything we could touch, and that we couldn't stay in morph for over two hours at a time. But we had experienced the morph first hand. We had become Andalites. My mind suddenly raced with possibilities. If we were to – could – find this small band of human resistance, perhaps it wouldn't be as difficult as I thought it might be. Being able to become animals opened up all sorts of possibly! But it would be challenging. No one had ever been able to do anything like this before. There were no books on travelling in the form of animals. Nothing around on the internet. And of course, no government leaflets on how to act if you're a fugitive of a parasitic alien war lord. As I walked, I could feel my mind slowly beginning to plan ahead. Five thousand miles is a long way to travel, even by plane. But of course, we couldn't take the plane. We couldn't use any type of human transport. Eramas had warned us that the Yeerks knew that we were human. By now, they would know our names, faces, addresses. And within less than a day, they would arrive on Earth to begin hunting us down. I guess a body capable of morphing – human or Andalite – would make a pretty decent host for the Yeerks.

We'd need a good variety of animals, I thought. Animals for all situations and all terrains. Land morphs, sea morphs, sky morphs. Wet and dry terrains. Hot and cold environments. Morphs for running. Morphs for hiding. Morphing for spying and for fighting. Being able to become an animal would be a fantastic bonus – but of course each animal had it's weaknesses as well as its strengths. So far, the only creatures we could become were human and Andalite. Human wouldn't get us very far without being caught. Andalites would be far too conspicuous. A Controller would recognise one immediately. No, we couldn't use Andalites again, we'd have to find our own to acquire. But where could we acquire such a variety of creatures? A farm? A zoo? A zoo would be the best option, but there wasn't one around here, as far as I knew. And there was no way they'd give a bunch of kids access to the lion's den. I thought about morphs I could do closer to home. Pets? I had a dog – a greyhound called Tallulah. She'd be a good first morph, and the speed of the greyhound – and possibly the teeth – might be useful later on. I took a deep breath as I walked in through the front door. It was 6am. Just enough time to try out my dog morph before my parents woke up and started banging on about disappearance. Hopefully they would have guessed that I'd got some good exam results and had gone round to a friends for some all day and night partying.


	11. Chapter 11: Going Solo

Chapter 11

I hadn't actually mentioned that I was planning to morph to the others. None of us – with the exception of Philip's disagreement about the whole thing – had even mentioned acquiring any other animals. But I dismissed the worry. One of us had to be the first to do a solo, unsupervised morph. Why shouldn't it be me? Adrenaline rushed through my body at the thought of becoming a dog. Ok, so I'd become an alien yesterday afternoon. But that was just one more strange happening in a long list of strange happenings. The whole context of aliens and Yeerks kind of destroyed most of the thrill. But now, here I was, back on earth. About to become a plain, everyday mammal. It almost seemed normal by comparison.

"Tallulah! Here girl! Where are you, Tally?" I called out for my dog. I'd entered the house quietly, padding around the sitting room. No Tallulah. I hoped she wasn't sleeping in my parent's room. I tiptoed into the kitchen. Ah. There she was, curled up in her basket. Completely at peace. Just like the next dog. No idea her mistress was about to borrow her DNA.

"Hey girl," I whispered as I bent down to stroke her. She twitched a little, then began to wag her tail lightly. I tickled her behind the ears, where she liked it the most. As I stroked her, I began to concentrate. Let the image of her form fill me mind. I thought about what it would be like to be her, to become a dog. As I acquired her, she fell into the same sort of trance the Andalite had. Her tail stopped thumping. She fell asleep again. After a few moments, when I decided that I'd acquired her as best as I could, I stood us and crept up the stairs to my room and shut the door. Didn't want my parents walking in on two Tallulahs. Or a half Samantha-half Tallulah freak. I stripped off the last tatters of the clothes I was wearing and put on a big, over sized tee-shirt. Then I concentrated once more on the image of my dog.

The changes began more quickly this time. I started to shrink a little – a weird sensation. It was a lot like falling, but with your feet still on the ground. As I shrunk, my skin began to sprout greyish-tan fur. My face began to change. I looked away from the mirror as my nose turned wet and black, but it didn't stop my eyes seeing as my nose and mouth stretched out into a long, thin muzzle. My lips dissolved into nothing, my teeth, instead of dissolving like before, grew longer and sharper. Two large canines popped out of my gums. I was a furry girl with the head of a dog. Very attractive. Suddenly – a tail shot out from behind! Tallulah's long, whippy tail, wagging this way and that. I'd stopped shrinking now. But I fell onto all fours as my knee and ankle joints unexpectedly changed direction. I looked down at my hands, trying not to puke. My fingers were shrivelling away, being replaced by dainty paws. My palms grew rough and calloused as they formed the dog's pads. My useless human finger nails became the short, stubby nails of the dog. They clicked on the floor boards as I tried to regain my balance. The tee-shirt I was wearing felt looser and looser. It fell to the ground, and I wriggled myself out of it.

I was almost fully dog now. It was an incredible sensation. In a way, weirder than morphing the Andalite, because I was becoming such a familiar animal. My insides were shifting and changing, squeezing into the distinctive streamlined shape of the greyhound. My senses were gradually changing too as my ears and nose formed the dog's features. Abruptly, my poor human senses were replaced by the wonderful sense of the dog. The smell! Wow! The hearing! Amazing! It was like I has been blind all my life and suddenly I could see! You think you can smell? You think that just because you can smell a cake baking in the oven, or the smoke when you burn toast, that you have good sense of smell? Well let me tell you, the sense of smell of a human is nothing, nothing compared to the dog's sense! I could smell everything. New smells, old smells. Good smell, nasty smells. But all fascinating to my doggy brain. I could smell spiders under the bed. The stench of – mmm -a bacon sandwich I'd only bothered to clear up yesterday morning. I could smell the scent of my clothes, piled up on the chair. I could smell _me_. The reek of next door's tom cat blew in through the open window. It sent my doggy brain into hyper mode. An un-neutered male kitty! What fun! Excellent to provoke. Maybe even chase. Perhaps I could… No. I realised what was happening. The doggy brain was taking over, just like I'd experienced when I'd morphed the Andalite. Although instead of being all optimistic and arrogant, I felt…happy. Playful. Like I didn't have a care in the world. I almost wished I could stay in this morph and not think about the challenge facing us ever again.

But of course I couldn't. We had a job to do. Find the resistance, fight the Yeerks. But figure out how to morph animals first. I jumped up and down, testing out my new dog body. Amazing spine. I could practically fold myself in two. It was like a whip – strong, muscular, and infinitely flexible. Perfect for propelling the greyhound in a motion even a cheetah would be proud of. Amazing hearing, too. I could pick up the slightest sounds no human would ever hear. A mouse breathing out on the lawn. Bugs and beetles crawling around. The tiniest snap of a twig as a fox or something stepped on it. The eyesight wasn't so good though. The dog brain relied mainly on its' hearing and smell to form a picture of the world around it. It didn't care too much about sight. As a result, my eyesight was a bit fuzzy and blurry. Colours were weak, like shapes of grey. It felt like I was wearing someone else's pair of glasses and watching a cinema screen with the colour saturation turn right down - but with the volume on full blast.

I stayed in morph for about half an hour, padding around my room, testing the body and senses, stopping here and there to sniff at a crisp crumbs and other tasty morsels under my bed. Who would have thought my room – with its complete absence of TV or stereo equipment – could be so much fun! But eventually glanced at the clock, and realised that perhaps I should demorph at last. There wouldn't be much time to get any sleep and face my parents before getting my act together and walking round to Ferdie's. I concentrated on my human self – just like Eramas had instructed us to do when we demorphed for the very first time. I felt the changes begin again. This time, my tail was the first to disappear. It simply shrivelled away, like a beanstalk drying up. My fur, too melted together like hot wax and formed the pink skin of my own. Not a pretty sight. A naked, tail-less dog, growing larger and fatter. I guess the Andalites hadn't worked out how to make morphing a smooth and beautiful process yet. As my human face emerged from Tallulah's snout, my senses dulled again. It was like I'd suddenly put on a pair of ear-muffs and was holding my nose. On the other hand, though, my vision became sharper. Eventually I was a human girl again. My tee-shirt lay on a crumpled heap on the floor – I hadn't managed to morph that either. I quickly grabbed my blanket and wrapped it round my body, like a towel. Just in case anyone walked in. I smiled to myself. I was more afraid of my parents seeing me naked than them seeing me turning into a dog!

I pulled open my wardrobe and searched around, looking for something that I might be able to morph in. I was wearing that tight vest top and belt-skirt when I'd morphed Eramas, so perhaps something tight would work. I pulled my old gymnastics leotard from the very back on my wardrobe. It was pretty ancient had had a weird design of blue tie-dye velour; I'd been into gym and dance when I was in lower school - although now I preferred team sports like hockey – and I'd liked to show off my costumes whenever the school put on a display. But it was tight as I stepped into it and forced my arms into the lyrca sleeves. It should work. I concentrated quickly on the dog again, and watched as the leotard melted into my skin as the dog shape took place. I quickly reversed the morph before it went too far, and the leotard reappeared. Excellent.


	12. Chapter 12: Results!

Chapter 12

Even though I was knackered from the past twenty or so hours, I found it difficult to sleep. I must have woken up five or six times and kept tossing and turning. During the short periods of sleep, I'd dreamed of giant, morphing worms, chasing us over mountains and deserts. And how much I would miss my over-protective, but loving parents. I couldn't bare to think how I would be having to leave them in only a couple of hours. I had no idea if I would even be able to say goodbye without breaking down. Then I thought I'd need an excuse for last night before saying goodbye. I glanced over at the clock. Ten AM. I'd been asleep for about three and a half hours. Suddenly, a loud knock on my door. And an angry female voice.

"Samantha Goddard!"

Ah. Mother. Quick, think of a story!

I sat up in bed and tried to make myself look slightly more presentable, as if I'd been awake for at least an hour and had simply been reading or something. My door swung open. My mother, a formidable woman, wearing the sharpest of suits and owning the sharpest of tongues, stood silhouetted in the doorway.

"Where _have_ you been young lady?" she bellowed. "Your father and I have been absolutely sick with worry!"

"Mum, I- " I tried to get half a word in edgeways. No such luck.

"You disappear yesterday morning – you don't even open your exam results – I mean, what is more important than your exam results!"

Mum rambled on for a few minutes. I had been expecting this and was ready. There's always been a tactic I use with my mother – it's to give her the chance to let off steam as quickly as possible. If you try to avoid her when you know she's angry at you, she just bottles up all the angry and it's even worse when she does finally explode. Better a fuming train immediately than a nuclear bomb next week.

"So, have you managed to think up an excuse for you behaviour yet?"

"I'm sorry, mum." Another tactic – Be humble. Swallow your pride. Apologise ASAP. "I'd gone round to Janet's to meet some of the others from school. We were all going to phone up the school together to hear our results, before the post arrived, and celebrate. Then we went shopping and I stayed the night."

"Why on Earth didn't you phone?"

"Um…I had no signal?" I offered. "My phone was out of range." Got that right. Long, long way out of range.

My mum signed. Hopefully the worst was over.

"So how did you do?"

"Huh?"

"Your results? What did you get? I hope you got at least one A, Samantha, I've been expecting a lot more from you this year…"

"Oh right, err.." Uh oh. I hadn't even looked at my results yet. I had no idea what I'd got. "Um, pretty much what I expected, actually," I said vaguely.

"Did you get an A?"

"Well, I'll have to check, I can't remember all ten off the top of my head."

"But you passed them all?"

Damn. Yes or No. One of my mother's famous direct questions. She's a ruthless business woman, and can see straight through any waffle.

"Absolutely," I said confidently. "Let me go and get them quickly, then you can see for yourself. Where did you put them, by the way?"

"On the coffee table in the sitting room."

I rushed into the sitting room, and grabbed the large brown envelope. My hands were shaking. I couldn't believe how nervous I was – I'd been abducted by aliens and now had to escape to America by turning into animals – and I was worried in case I'd failed my exams! I could feel my mother's eyes burning a hole in the back of my neck as I ripped open the envelope, and pulled out the thick cream paper. I ran my eyes down the page. One A, three Bs, five Cs and a D. Thank god. I'd managed to scrape a D in biology. I really did think I'd failed. Bit disappointing about the string of Cs, especially art, in which I'd been expecting a B.

"There you go." I thrust the results at my mum. "Passed them all, and got an A in History. I can go on to do A Levels." I wasn't going to be doing A Levels now, of course. I wasn't going to be able to go to school ever again. But it pleased my mother. Her frown softened.

"Well I'm a bit annoyed about all these Cs, Samantha. And this D really is appalling. But at least you've got an A in something. And no failures."

I blinked. What a word to use. 'Appalling.' That's how rewarding my mother can be. I wasn't one-hundred percent sure I was going to miss her whilst I was away.


	13. Chapter 13: Aristocracy

Chapter 13

It was nearing midday. I was still hanging from last night, but the four of us had agreed to meet up at Ferdie and Philips' house to discuss what we were going to do from here. I'd said goodbye to my parents. I had spent a long time saying goodbye, in fact, and even started crying, and had to mumble something about not getting more As when they asked what was wrong. I had no idea what to say. I would be leaving them, probably for a long time, and I had to face the possibility that I could die. But I couldn't let them know. Not only would it tear them apart, it might also be a clue for the Yeerks if my parents were ever infested. I shuddered at the thought. Eventually I told them I'd probably be late home, and might be staying round a friends' for a couple of days, and not to worry if I didn't phone. It was one of the hardest five minutes of my life. Eventually, I tore myself away. I went upstairs and quickly slipped my morphing leotard on under my tee-shirt and jeans, said one last goodbye, and left the house.

Ferdie and Philip's house wasn't difficult to find, but it was a long walk. I began thinking that we'd definitely need some good cross-country morphs – I was having difficultly surviving the five miles to the Lawless' house! Eventually, I came to the dirt track road that led to their house and turned into it. I gasped. The house was massive. A beautiful Georgian manor house, set on a hill in several acres of Yorkshire parkland, surrounded by paddocks, fields and a lake. Wow. Certainly a contrast to the surroundings when we'd last all been together. I reached the end of the tree-lined drive and gingerly knocked on the enormous oak front door. I could here the sound of the knock echoing through the hallway. I wondered if the Lawless's had a butler to open the door for them.

Just then, I heard a voice. I spun, searching for the source. Philip was traipsing across one of the paddocks, wearing a rather odd ensemble of brown plus-fours and a green tweed jacket.

"Samantha!" Now that he was in his own surrounding, his voice sounded almost as grand as Ferdie's. "We're round the back, having a late breakfast. Come and join us."

I followed Philip round the side of the large, ivy covered house and into the garden, which, in my opinion, was more like a small county. Philip led me into a smaller area of the garden, partly hidden by tall bushes and mature trees. An old wrought iron picnic table stood on a cracked, paved area, sitting at which was Asha.

"Hey, Asha," I said.

"Hiya!" she squawked. She looked very different to how she did on the space ship, wearing a very shiny yellow football shirt, and black and white designer tracksuit trousers. A huge, gold coloured chain hung round her neck. Her feet were clad in ultra-white, brand new trainers. Her black hair was scraped back into a tight ponytail, and enormous gold earrings hung from her ears. Her dark skin was caked in make-up. No offence to her or anything, but she could not look more out of place if she'd tried.

Asha caught me staring at her necklace. "You like me bling?" she asked.

"Uh, yeah," I said hesitantly. "Very, um, _in_."

I sat down at the table and poured myself some tea. Tea first, milk second. Philip joined us. I was about to summon up the courage to mention my little experiment last night, but then, I noticed one of us missing.

"Where's Ferdie?" I asked, looking around.

"Oh, he'll be along…" said Philip, sounding rather vague.

Suddenly, I heard a thundering in the distance. It sounded like a cavalry charge. "That should be him now, actually…" said Philip. He looked upwards. "And over he goes!"

I put down my tea and turned my head towards the thunder. Out of nowhere, a huge pair of hooves flew over my head. I screamed and ducked, slopping the tea everywhere. The horse, a beautiful chestnut mare, soared over the bushes and landed perfectly beside us. It cantered around our private bit of garden for a bit then came to a stop in front of us.

--Yee Haaa!-- it cried.

"Hello, Flawless," said Philip.


	14. Chapter 14: Flawless Lawless

Chapter 14

I stared. The horse – Ferdie - started twisting and writhing. Its long brown mane was sucked into its neck, and was replaced by shaggy strawberry blonde hair. Its hooves melted into human fingers. Its body shrunk, the back legs began to stand erect, the tail dissolved into nothing. The rich, brown fur disappeared. Ferdie's horse eyes slid from the side of his face and turned from dark brown to green. His big, black nose became small, pink and finely drawn. His Mr. Ed teeth shrunk to a set of perfect white pearls. Finally, a dusting of freckles drew themselves over his face as if he was being flicked by light brown paint. Ferdie stood before us, wearing nothing but tight black underwear. I quickly averted my eyes.

"Impressive morph," I said. "Impressive entrance too, come to that."

"Cheers, my dear," laughed Ferdie, plonking himself on a chair opposite me. "I'm glad that worked out. That's only the third time I've morphed and they've all been rather messy so far!"

"Third?" I asked, glad to have been thrust into the topic of alien technology, without having to bring it up myself.

"Yup." Only acquired Dynasty, my best polo pony, so far, but I've already morphed her twice. Absolutely amazing." He leaned back in his chair. "You should try it, Phil."

"I'm not acquiring anything," snapped Philip, switching out of his gentlemanly role. "I'm having nothing to do with this ridiculous road trip. You three can do what you like. I'm staying at home."

"Philip," I said cautiously, "I really don't think we have a choice. That Andalite probably risked his life, and career, or whatever it is they have, giving us that morphing power so that we could escape. We can't let him down now."

Philip threw down his bread roll. "I already told Ferdie. I'm not having any involvement. I'm not going anywhere. I shouldn't even be discussing a mission of any kind."

"Guys," I said, looking at them all instead of just Philip. "We're already wasting time! We're all in danger just sitting here. Don't you remember what Eramas said about the Yeerks? They'll track us down in less than a day if we don't move out of here. We're at war, guys!"

There was an awkward silence. Philip refused to meet my eye.

"Shhh," said Ferdie, in a Basil Fawlty stage whisper. "Don't mention the war."

I stared blankly at him for a second, then continued. "Well, anyway. We have to get out of here. We have to acquire some decent morphs, and we have to get cross-country ASAP, and find this Resistance the Andalite was on about." I looked Philip in the eye. "I hardly know you guys," I said. "Whatever problems we all had before this whole thing started, they mean nothing now. We stick together, and leave our pasts behind us. We have no choice. We're not leaving you, Philip. And that's not just me being honourable and all. It's for selfish reasons as well. I don't want you becoming captured by the Yeerks and spilling the secrets about us and the other human morphers."

Philip glared at me. Then, he lowered his eyes and allowed himself to give me the tiniest of nods.

"Ok, then. That's settled." I relaxed and leant back in my chair. "I suggest we find a zoo, or farm of whatever, get a good variety of morphs, and set off. We can't use any type of human transport, as the Yeerks will be able to trace us at customs or with credit cards or whatever. So we'll need some animals that can get us long distances, for both land in the sea. I acquired my dog, a greyhound last night, just to check that we're not all still dreaming, but we'll need other stuff. Birds maybe. Horses and dogs won't get us far."

"Or gerbils," piped up Asha.

"What?"

"I came round to Ferdie's a few hours ago after saying good-bye to my parents on the phone. He let me acquire his sister's gerbil. Just to see if I could still do it, ya know?"

"Oh right." So three of us had morphed on our own. And there I was, hoping to impress them with my Tallulah morph!

"I know a place where we could get some good morphs," said Ferdie. "A little zoo – Archington House Wildlife Park - not too far from here. We go there, get our animals, and then set off straight from there. It's not a huge place, but they've got a wide range of creatures. Sure we could find something useful. I can get us in free, too." At this point, Philip caught Ferdie's eye, a knowing look in his eyes.

"Ok, cool," I said. "Sounds good. Do you know someone who works there, or something, then?"

"Actually," Ferdie announced, "I know the guy who owns the place. My great-uncle owns most of Archington estate. He set up the zoo a few years back to help with tax and all that stuff."

I was impressed. Ferdie's great-uncle owned Archington House? There must be a lot of money in the family, I guessed. I wished that, with that cash floating about, the Lawless's could be able to get us bodyguards or our own private jet to help us find the Resistance! But, of course, we couldn't tell anyone. From what the Andalite had said, anyone could be a controller. Visser Five could have landed on earth by now. There could be traps laid anywhere.

"Excellent stuff," I said. "So that's settled."

"Hold on!" interrupted Philip. "We haven't even thought this through yet! Who's to know this whole thing isn't a trap in itself?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"How do we know Eramas isn't a Controller himself? He could be a Yeerk, using us as bait to find these other human animal morphers."

"Philip," sighed Ferdie, "the Andalite gave us the names and faces of the other humans. If the Yeerks already had that information, why use us to lead the Yeerks to them?"

"Course!" Asha breathed. "If the Yeerks knew what the Andalites knew, why use us? They could just capture us and the others right now and use us all as hosts, innit?"

"Exactly," said Ferdie. "I don't think there's any use worrying ourselves with anymore than we have to. Our task seems pretty straightforward. Learn to morph, find Jake and the others. Simple."

"Yes, how simple it sounds when you say it that way," said Philip sarcastically. "Although, in my experience, whenever you expect something to be simple, it's going to end up as the complete opposite."

I'm sure Ferdie's attitude was the right attitude to take. But it didn't stop a new worry beginning to wiggle itself into my mind, like a worm, slowly working its way through a tasty red apple. I realised that there was absolutely no way we could be caught by the Yeerks on this mission. Because if they caught us, we'd lead Visser Five, and sooner or later, Visser Three, right to the front doors of Earth's only resistance.


	15. Chapter 15: Chavs

Chapter 15

"This should suit Asha," said Ferdie.

"What is it?" she asked.

Ferdie had led us to a rather dilapidated old shed at the bottom of one of the paddocks. He'd at last pulled on some clothes - some muddy white jeans and an old polo shirt. He was now holding up a small cardboard box with holes punched in the sides. A light thumping and banging could be heard from within.

"A crow," said Ferdie. "I found it in the garden last night, I think it's got a hurt wing. I thought maybe we could all acquire it as a first morph and use it to fly to the zoo."

"Why would a crow suit me?" Asha asked suspiciously.

"You're a chav, aren't you," replied Ferdie. "And crows are the chavs of the bird world."

Asha looked as if she was about to punch him, but then she relaxed and smiled. "That's right!" she said. "I'm a chav and I ain't bovvered about what no one thinks!"

"Kewl," I said. "Let's get on with this then. We shouldn't waste more time than we have to."

We each put our hands into the box and acquired the crow. It wasn't a particularly nice experience, the stupid bird was obviously pretty annoyed at being cooped and kept pecking and biting as I put my hand in the grab it. But it calmed down as it entered the acquiring trance, and the other three were able to acquire it without much hassle. Ferdie released the bird into the field. Its wing didn't look too good, but it looked as if it could survive. Crows are tough birds.

"Right then, I assume-" Just then, something occurred to me. "Have you guys managed to morph clothing yet? Ferdie, I take it you haven't?"

"Uh, only the sexy undies you saw me wearing earlier!" he said.

"Only the stuff we wore on the ship," said Philip.

"Ain't either." Asha.

"Well," I said. "I've discovered that you can morph tight stuff." I pulled up my tee-shirt and showed them the leotard I wore. "Anything skin tight. I don't think you can morph shoes or anything like that though."

"Great," said Philip. "Five thousand miles, and no shoes. How are we going to survive?"

It was a rhetorical question, but Ferdie answered anyway. "We'll have wings, old boy!"

I waited as the guys went up to their room to grab some skin tight clothing. Ferdie stole a leotard from his sister and threw it to Asha. "Front page of Vogue, I'm sure!" he laughed.

The guys said their good-byes to their parents, telling them they were going on a camping trib in the mountains,and met Asha and I in the grand old hallway. They were taking a while. I'd experienced first hand what it was like to say good-bye to your parents when you don't know when you'll next see them is. I felt tears prickling at my eyelids. I quickly blinked them away. There would be time for mourning later. I trembled, partly from the terror of the situation, partly from the cold. The two of us were wearing only our morphing outfits, shivering in the drafty old house. I expected the guys to be wearing the same, but as I heard Ferdie's voice, I glanced up at him coming down the staircase, a triumphant look on his face.

"Oh, damn right!" he shouted in glee.

I looked at their so-called morphing outfits. Philip was wearing a set of brightly coloured cycling shorts and a tee-shirt, and long socks pulled halfway up to his knees. I resisted the urge to start laughing, but then again, I probably looked just as bad as his did. Ferdie, too was wearing a tight cycling tee-shirt. But I noticed he was also wearing tight white riding breeches – and long leather riding boots. Oh come on! Don't guys listen to a word girls say?

"Ferdie, I thought I said we couldn't morph shoes!"

"Well," Ferdie smiled. "You were wrong. I just tried doing a horse morph, wearing these, and they were fine!"

"What? How!"

"Well, they're about fifty sizes too small for me, so they are very tight. But they're also pure leather. I think maybe natural material – you know - stuff that's made from something that used to be alive – works better than man-made material. My cotton breeches morph better than my tee-shirt, too, which is nylon."

"Oh," I said, rather annoyed I hadn't worked this out for myself. "Lucky you."

I wanted to run back to mine and find some natural-material shoes of my own, but something told me there wasn't time.

"We'd better get going," I said. "We should aim to acquire some morphs and set off before it gets dark."

"Sure thing," agreed Philip. "The sooner the better."

"Ok, let's find somewhere out of sight to morph these crows and get on our way. Ferdie or Philip, can you guide us to your uncle's zoo?"

"Should be fine," said Ferdie. "I mean, we usually go by car, rather than air, but hopefully I can find it!"

We morphed in Ferdie's bedroom, ready to fly out through the open window. It was a huge, spacious room, with high ceilings and panelled walls. A big four poster stood against one wall. Posters of female models and eighty's rock bands were pined in front of original paintings of generations of forefathers, their dogs and their horses. We had put the clothes we'd arrived in at the back of Ferdie's wardrobe (solid mahogany, just for the record). We wouldn't be able to take any clothing with us when we set off. I took a deep breath, motioned to the others to begin the morph, and started to concentrate on the image of the crow.

I had to admit, this was probably the weirdest morph yet – weirder, even than morphing the Andalite. I began to shrink, faster and faster, as if I'd never stop. My hair was sucked up into my head. My bones hollowed and changed direction. My feet were the worst bit. The skin on my legs became covered in horrible grey scales, spreading from my toes to my knees. The toes themselves fused themselves together, and reformed as long crow claws, each with a disturbing black claw at the end. Ughh. My heel bone stretched and stretched into a back claw. My face was changing too, I noticed. My mouth and nose were becoming harder and harder, stretching outwards into a sharp beak. My eyes slid lower and further apart, each side of my beak, increasing my field of vision. My body was becoming shorter and squatter, a stubby tail growing out of my rear. My arms too, were changing. They were growing – becoming longer and longer, so long, that I couldn't hold them up anymore. Then the bones hollowed too and I could lift them.

"That is disgusting!" said Ferdie. "You look lok amplu tik- " His voice slurred as his mouth formed a bird's beak. --You look like a plucked turkey,-- he repeated, having crossed the line to thought-speak.

I looked down at my morphing body. He was right. I did look like a plucked turkey. A small, fat turkey, with no feathers and mostly human arms. Suddenly, I felt a tickling over my body. I recoiled in horror as sharp, elongated cones grew out of my skin, all over my body. Then the cones grew darker, thicker and softer, and I relaxed as I realised they were feathers. The feathers on my arms – or wings – grew longer as they adapted themselves for life in the air. I looked at the others. They had just about completed their morphs, although none of them seemed to have looked as bad as mine had. Philip's had even looked quite graceful, he'd managed to grow huge black wings from his back before starting on the rest of his morph, so that he's looked like some kind of mythical creature. Ferdie was just morphing his beak and flapping his new wings noisily. The last of Ashas' feathers popped up from her skin. I gave a squawk. We were fully crow.


	16. Chapter 16: The Ultimate Rush

Chapter 16

Have you ever had an experience cooler than flying? I doubt it very much – because if you have ever flown in the way that we were doing so now (which, admit it, you haven't) then you'd say nothing even came close. It is, without any uncertainty, the coolest, most incredible, most amazingly fantastic experience ever.

--Yaaaahhoooo!-- Ferdie's voice echoed through my head. --Yaaaahhh-haaahhh!--

--Oh wow! This is so fun! Why didn't humans evolve to fly? This is the most fun I've ever had! Innit? Innit!-- Asha squealed.

We were crows, following Philip's lead to his great-uncle's estate. Half a kilometre up, souring, flapping, gliding up in the sky. It was utter freedom. Complete, total freedom. Nothing below, nothing above, nothing in front. Nothing holding you but warm air. It was the ultimate get-away-from-reality, combined with the excitement of extreme sport. It was faster than hang-gliding. Wilder than skydiving. More fun than zero-gravity, if you've ever been an astronaught. It was bungee-jumping – but forwards, not down, and in complete control. The ultimate adrenaline rush.

--Ahh!-- Philip cried out. He had been flying near the front, a little lower than the rest of us, but he's just been over taken by a crazy-flying Ferdie, who shot up underneath him and swooped upwards – almost vertically – straight in front of his brother.

--Damn right, Philip!-- Ferdie shout gleefully. --You should try that, it's marvellous!--

--I think I'll pass,-- replied Philip. --I'm going to let the bird do the flying, not my whacked out, crazy polo-player brain.--

I was letting the bird do the flying too. When we'd morphed, we'd all felt the animal's instincts kick in. I'd felt the optimism and arrogance of the Andalite brain. The playfulness of the dog brain. And now, the love of food that was a part of the crow brain. It was weird, like having a second mind. We could think, but it was like there was someone else in here with us as well, sometimes agreeing with us (when I spotted a tasty worm on the ground), and sometimes fighting (like when I refused to swoop down and catch the worm). I hadn't the first clue about flying. I knew nothing about thermals, or air resistance, or lift. But luckily for me, the crow did. As common and annoying as crows may be, they sure know a thing or two about flying! I could sense the bird brain making teeny little adjustments to my tail feathers, moving them maybe a millimetre or so to help me keep my balance whilst airborne. My wings flapped in perfect time, at the perfect angle. The crows' brain knew that the slightest wrong move could mean certain death. I caught a thermal – a pillar of warm air – from the hot concrete of the roads below, and soared upwards. The others saw what I was doing and joined me.

--Do you know the second best thing about morphing?-- asked Ferdie.

--Asides from being about to turn into birds?-- I asked.

--It's the fact that morphing heals us.--

--What do you mean?--

-- Well, my guess is, the Andalite said that morphing works on DNA. So I think that, maybe when we demorph, our bodies are reconstructed according to our original DNA. We were injured by all that flying debris back on the alien space-ship. But by the time we had demorphed, we were healed. Pretty cool, huh? And guess what?--

--What?--

--My spots have gone!-- he said triumphantly. --Every last one! I have now rid myself of the horrible curse of adolescent acne and have beautifully clear, smooth skin. As do you, Samantha.--

I laughed. --Well, whatever problems we have to deal with now, spots aren't one of them!--


	17. Chapter 17: We Need Practise!

Chapter 17

We flapped onwards, Philip guiding us over villages, houses, gardens, woods. I could see the layout of our little town. The roads – how they curved and joined together. The big cloverleaf junction as we flew over the motorway. And later, as we flew over the moors, wild goats and horses. They all looked so tiny and insignificant from the air. We flew for about half an hour – it was about eight miles to the zoo as the crow flies – literally in this case. We managed to keep an eye on the time by looking at people's watches. The crow had pretty decent eyesight. Better than a humans', at least. I swooped down every so often whenever I saw someone wearing a watch. From about fifty feet up I could still see the hands. It was like having a fairly good pair of binoculars strapped permanently to your eyes. It was just reaching two o' clock as we finally descended towards the zoo.

The zoo was set in the grounds of a magnificent Jacobean house, which, like the Lawless's, possessed an air of shabby splendour one associates with nobility. Even from the air, my bird eyes could still pick out the centauries-old furniture inside the some of the upper rooms, the cracked brickwork and gnarled old trees around the grounds. The estate consisted of the house itself, part of which was open to the public, the immediate formal gardens and a quirky maze and around five thousand acres of parkland, most of which was now a wildlife park.

Philip led the way, flying in front, lower and lower as we neared a suitable place to land and demorph. Whilst still in the air, I could already pick out some interesting morphs. The bird's eye view gave me the perfect map of the place. A big section of the park acted as a mini safari park. Within the tall, barbed wire fences of the enclosure, I could spot several lions dozing in the sun. Nearer the house itself were several enclosures for small primates, birds of prey and other big cats. Surrounding a children's play area were smaller, single story buildings, which looked to be home to snakes or lizards. There were fields which were home for a variety of grazing animals – buffalos, mountain goats, and smaller wallaby-like creature. Further out, possibly beyond the grounds of the park and overlooking the mountains, were several fields of deer.

Philip guided us – straight over the ticket booths – round the back of the house.

--We'll be ok to demorph here. Ferdie, we'd better let Uncle Ed know we're here.--

He went silent for a moment, presumably to let the crow brain help him land, then said to me and Asha,

--The paying guests all wear wrist bands,-- he explained, starting to demorph. --Some of the estate staff might not recognise me so it would be useful for my uncle to be able to explain that we're his nephews, should the staff ring for security.--

--Good thinking,-- I replied, landing rather clumsily. I had decided that, however fun flying was, landing was the worst part. Even though the crow's brain knew instinctively what to do, I couldn't shake off the natural human reaction of panic as we seemed to plummet straight for earth. I flapped my wings to help me regain my balance, and started my own demorph.

I found it easier going from animal back to human. It was much easier to picture your own self, your own human body, than it was to picture the animals'. The change is less disturbing too. Even if you've enjoyed being an animal, you can't help but feel relief as you see your familiar human skin appear from the feathers of an almost unknown animal. My own feathers were rapidly disappearing. They seemed to run together, like hot wax, before becoming lighter and softer. My legs began to grow, so I shot upwards like I was wearing a jet pack. Human feet and toes emerged at the ends of the thickening crow legs. The wings were an interesting change. The long bones, mostly still bird-like, at the end of my wings (metacarpals, I think they're called) began to shrink and rearrange themselves into the fingers and thumbs of my human hands. My shoulder joints changed, beginning designed for throwing and swinging, rather than for flapping.

"That is one funny-looking morph," laughed Ferdie, who seemed to be the opposite of me, with a human head and hair and an oversized birdie body.

--You don't look so brilliant yourself,-- I replied, watching the last of the changes. My face was the last to transform. My beady black eyes became larger, sprouting eyelashes and brows. The solid black lightened as the whites of my eyes, my brown irises, and pupils, became more distinguishable. My beak softened and formed my nose and mouth. My gums itches as teeth reappeared. Finally, my dark, shoulder-length hair grew at top speed from my head. I stood there like a dumb out-of-place gymnast in my morphing outfit and waited for the others. Philip was human before I was even half-way through. I guessed maybe he had some kind of talent for morphing – if there was such a thing. I was still trying to get used to the whole thing! At last though, the four of us were all finished, and ready to go.

"I suggest we split into pairs, and each go off and acquire some morphs," I said, when Philip had let his uncle know of our presence. The four of us were now headed to the main part of the park, each glancing nervously at the various potential morphs.

"You guys are both allowed back behind the enclosures, right? So maybe one of us gals could each go with you guys," I said. "Philip, you and Asha and me and Flawless?"

"Absolutely," said Philip. "What sort of morphs are we looking for, then? Considering we've got about five thousand miles to go."

"Well," I said, trying to remember what the Andalite had told us. "We're mostly going to need morphs suitable for travelling over all terrains. So that's land, sea and sky. Perhaps a couple of dangerous animals in case we ever get ourselves into a fight."

"Sure," said Philip. "They've got plenty of animals here. I think we should get a bit of variety in regards to each other's morphs. If we all had exactly the same morphs, we wouldn't be able to count on a different animal's strengths if we became aware of any weaknesses with our own. Plus, if we all morphed exactly the same animal, and it had distinctive markings, or whatever, then if a Controller spotted us, they might become suspicious."

"Good plan," I replied. "Although we'll have to have some of the same kind of morphs. I think we should all get eagle or hawk morphs, for example. And some kind of water-based morph."

"Definitely," agreed Philip. "Shall we agree to meet up in an hour to so then? That should give us time to acquire some animals."

"Ok. Let's say, three-thirty by the falconry arena."


	18. Chapter 18: An Excellent Morph

Chapter 18

We set off, Ferdie and I. Philip and Asha headed towards the paddocks. We tried to keep to the grass areas – I was barefoot and it was painful to walk on the gravel. I was beginning to notice a change in Philip. As reluctant and as doubtful he'd been just a few hours ago, I couldn't help but give him some credit for his insight. The boy certainly has a flair for planning and strategy.

"How about some of the big cats?" asked Ferdie. "I'd love to see the damage caused by some of those kitty claws."

We were nearing the lion enclosure. The huge, double fence loomed above us. In the distance, we could see the lions sunbathing lazily whilst tourists in their cars snapped madly. I stared in apprehension at the fence – the thought of chasing a lion and acquiring its DNA make me a little more than nervous.

"Let's give the lions a miss," I suggested. "I don't know about you, but I'm not stepping foot in that enclosure. There's far too much land to cross before to get to them. We'll get spotted. And I don't want anything acquiring me for lunch before I've got a chance to acquire them."

"No, me neither," replied Ferdie. "I don't want to be dead meat before this thing's even started. How about the other big cats? There's loads of others in smaller cages not far from here."

We approached the other big cats. A large, circular den for the tigers. A spacious, tree-filled area for the leopards. Other areas for pumas, jaguars and a snowy lynx.

"I'm going to go for that leopard," I announced, seeing a beautiful, spotted creature lying in the shade under one of the trees. "Is there any way to get in, opposed to climbing over the fence?" I laughed.

"Yeah," said Ferdie. "There are back door entrances for the staff only through that building on the left. There shouldn't be many people around – the tiger feeding starts soon."

Sure enough, most of the visitors were leaving the leopards and jaguars and crowding round the glamorous tiger pen. One glanced at my leotard and gave me a funny look. "Won't be able to do tigers then, with all those people around," I said.

Ferdie guided me through a small, windowless building at the back of the smaller enclosures. It smelled of raw meat. I guessed this was where most of the cats' feed were prepared. We walked down a narrow corridor, with doors on either side. Each door held a clipboard on a peg, detailing the animals housed within that enclosure, feeding times, any medical care, and all that. We stood outside the door marked leopards.

"Ready?" asked Ferdie.

I nodded reluctantly. I wasn't sure if I'd ever be ready. "Just as long as I don't get my arm bitten off in the meantime."

I pushed open the door and closed it behind me. There was a second door in front, creating a safety cage in case the leopards were to suddenly rush out of the door. I unbolted the second door, and slipped inside, re-bolting it as I went. I took a deep breath and looked around. Most of the place was hidden by trees. The whole enclosure was like a mini-wood. A lump of chicken meat, or whatever, lay stinking on the ground. I kicked it out of the way. A slight movement! I blinked in the sunlight and took a tiny step forward. One of the two leopards was lying on a rock, snoozing peacefully. It had twitched as I kicked the chicken, but had gone back to sleep now. A smaller leopard sat in the trees above me, its long tail hanging gracefully down below the branches. Well there was no way I was getting up there to acquire it. It would have t be the sleeping one.

"Hey, kitty, kitty," I whispered, moving quietly towards the leopard, never taking my eyes off it. "Hello, puss, puss. Please don't eat me."

I stood gingerly before the cat, mostly hidden from the public by the trees. The leopard was lying on its side, facing towards me. Good. I didn't want to creep up on it, and then have it attack. It slowly opened one eye, looked at me for a second, then went back to sleep. It knew it was perfectly capable of taking me out there and then if I tried anything stupid. I held my breath and took another step forward. My pulse was racing, butterflies dancing in my stomach. "Ooooh my god…" I said to myself.

I slowly reached out a hand to touch it. Its soft fur flickered in the light breeze. I slowly exhaled, then placed my hand of its flank. Immediately, I began to concentrate. The leopard, having fallen into the trance, dozed on. I backed away, having acquired the leopard. I stole a nervous glance towards the crowd, who, thankfully, couldn't see me, and backed quietly out of the room.

"Did you get it," asked Ferdie, once I'd reappeared.

"Yup. Pretty nerve-wracking experience, though, I can tell you!"

"God I bet," he replied. "By the way, I've chosen my next morph. "I want to acquire the lynx."

"Ok, sure. Hope you don't get as nervous as I did!"

Ferdie laughed uneasily and pushed open the door marked 'lynx'. He re-emerged a few minutes later, looking shaken, but happy. "Got it," he said. "Eurasian lynx, third largest predator in Europe after the brown bear and wolf. Largest of the four lynx species. Excellent morph, I'd say."


	19. Chapter 19: Going Overboard

Chapter 19

Things moved quickly after that. Now that we'd conjured up the nerve to get near the animals, and that we'd acquired our battle morphs, Ferdie and I made our way around the park acquiring everything we thought necessary. Ferdie had much more nerve than I did to creep into the animal's enclosures – whether it was because his uncle owned the place, or just because he was fearless, I don't know. He'd got himself a good collection of morphs -including an otter, stag, scorpion, harvest mouse, ferretand armadillo -by the time we reached the sea mammals, and was excited telling me how he planned to use them. I sighedinwardly at his enthusiasm. So far, all I'd managed was the leopard, stag and otter. The stag had been an interesting choice. Neither of us had really considered the huge fields of deer as potential morphs, but Ferdie had quite niftily discovered that one of the larger males (what Ferdie called 'Bambi's dad') had been injured by hunters and was being taken care of in the medical wing. We'd seen the chance to get close to a beautiful and adaptable morph animal, and had slipped in and acquired it.

Ferdie was now chattering on about the likelihood of being able to acquire a wolf or fox, but I interrupted him, saying,

"I hope you can remember all these animals you've acquired," I said, as he stood by the side of the dolphin pool in his tee-shirt and underpants. "I don't want you panicking in the heat of the moment, not knowing which animal to morph."

"I'll be fine, Sam!" he said. "The more the merrier. Besides, why stop at the bare minimum? The Andalite didn't say there was a limit to how many animals you could acquire. You should get yourself a dolphin whilst we're here - they seem to have so much more fun than we do!" With that, he dived into the pool in one graceful arch.

"I've got an otter morph," I replied stonily when he'd surfaced. "And I'm planning to acquire a shark later anyway."

"Suit yourself," he called, splashing his way over to the dolphin, quite unafraid.

There was only one dolphin in that pool, it being one of the park's newer acquisitions. It was being held for a couple of days in its own pool away from the public to help it get used to the place before being introduced to the others.

"Afternoon, you," said Ferdie to the dolphin as it swam over to him playfully. It touched its bottle nose against Ferdie's cheek. Ferdie chuckled, then went quiet as he started acquiring the dolphin.

"Can't wait to test that one out," he said, standing dripping wet next to me, having climbed out the pool. He ran his hand through his sopping wet hair and grinned at me.

"Bet you can't," I said, amused. "Come on, we'd better go meet the others."


	20. Chapter 20: Birds Of A Feather

Chapter 20

We caught up with the others outside the bird-of-prey arena and immediately began listing our new morphs.

"Ferdie did a good job," I said. "He's got loads more than I have. Scorpion, armadillo – loads! God knows what he'll do with them all!"

"Big up, bruvver! An armadillo! That sounds wicked!" shrieked Asha.

"Asha and I did quite well ourselves, actually," said Philip rather pompously. "Asha got a hyena morph for battle, and I got a musk ox, which is like a big buffalo, and a wolverine."

"A wolverine?" asked Ferdie, smirking. "Isn't that like, something out of X-Men?"

"A wolverine is a type of bear," retorted Philip. "Very slick, very powerful, with fantastically sharp claws."

"Sounds good," I said. "I also got a leopard morph and Flawless got a lynx."

I suddenly realised I was referring to Ferdie as Flawless. Hmm.

"Oh, we got some of them mountain animals too, didn't we Philip?" piped up Asha.

"Yep," said Philip. "Asha heregot a reindeer morph andI got an Ibex, which is like a large, wild goat. Both very tough and sure-footed. The reindeer will be a good morph for travelling, actually – apparently in the wild they can trek hundreds of miles across the tundra. And they live in the Arctic, so it'll be a good cold weather morph."

"Good planning. Flawless managed to get us into the medical centre, so we both acquired a pretty good stag morph, which should be valuable."

"Neat," said Asha.

I smiled. We'd done a good job. Time to head for our flight morphs, one of which was soon to become a favourite of mine.

The bird-of-prey arena was a big, open air patch of grass with seating on three of the four sides. Hutch-like enclosures stood at the front of the space, where the birds were kept when they were being shown. A display had evidently just finished – crowds of people were leaving their seats and making their way to the front of the arena, where the falconry staff were letting people have a close up view of the birds. Some of the adults and older kids were allowed to gently stroke them.

"Here's our chance," I said to the others. I tried to keep my voice down, but, with the number of little kids around, no one could hear us, or bothered to listen to us anyway.

We pushed our way to the front of the crowd and examined the little plates giving information about the birds.

"Well, we've got a choice of lanner falcon, British merlin, buzzard, northern goshawk,ospreyand hobby," I said. "There's also a barn own ("isn't he beautiful!" breathed Asha) which I think we should all acquire for when it gets dark."

"I want that merlin!" said Asha. "It looks so cute!"

"Well, maybe we should all get the same," said Philip. "Different types of birds of prey all flying together might attract attention."

"I don't think we should be flying together," I said, "unless we're crows. This card says that raptors – birds of prey – hardly ever fly in groups even if they are of the same species. We can morph different ones if we like. It wouldn't make any difference. You can have your merlin," I smiled at Asha, who beamed.

We began to gather, like eager tourists, round the member of staff holding our favourite bird. Ferdie knew the girl with the hobby, and had no problem into getting to the front of the queue to acquire the bird (and chat up the girl, I noticed). I had read the sign for the hobby. A speedy and graceful falcon, this bird was famous for its spectacular and daring aerial displays. Kind of an ideal morph for Ferdie, I mused.

Asha was trying to acquire the merlin, sticking her hand over the heads of people in an effort to touch the bird. She had to try several attempts – acquisition requires continuous contact, and Ashas' hand kept getting brushed away by visitors.

Philip had chosen the buzzard. Like Philip himself, the buzzard was a powerful and magnificent bird, rich brown in colour with creamy feathers on its stomach.

I went for the lanner falcon. According to the sign, it was mid-sized bird, exceptionally manoeuvrable in flight, their tactics of ambush and surprise making them popular birds to watch – it was almost as if they had a personality.

When we had all acquired our favourite bird, we moved on to the barn owl.

"You're right, Asha," I said, looking at the owls' beautiful heart shaped face. "He is gorgeous." Under the watchful eye of the falconer, I gently reached out and stroked its soft feathers. Then, unbeknown to the falconer, I concentrated on the owl and began to acquire it.

"Super bird," said the falconer, a young woman dressed in khaki trousers and a vest top, a thick falconry glove on her arm. "Those feathers are so soft that when the owl flies, it is completely silent. The prey never hears a thing." She smiled in admiration at the owl as the others acquired it too.


	21. Chapter 21: A Leader's Responsibility?

Chapter 21

"I can't wait to morph the hobby," said Ferdie excitedly. "Should be much better than the crow. Look at those eyes. So fierce. And that beak! Very cool indeed."

We'd made our way round most of the park, acquiring a variety of animals. We now had rattlesnakes, geese, blue sharks and wasps on our list. The majority of the animals we'd chosen were famous for the long distance they travelled to breed or whatever. The reindeer, sharks and rattlesnakes were all migratory, and the geese were well-known as powerful, long distance flyers.

Ferdie had also acquired a couple of other random animals – such as a giraffe - just because 'they would be cool to morph.' The wasp was a bit of a cheat – it had been flying around Philip's head and he'd got so annoyed with it that he's managed to grab it in his hand and acquire it to stop it buzzing. Then I suggested we might need an insect morph, so we passed the wasp around and acquired it too. The shark acquisition had been quite terrifying. Not only had we had to physically touch the creature, we'd had all the trouble of sneaking into to the centre where the tanks were kept. Luckily, the park had closed the sea life exhibit and were keeping the sharks in smaller, separate tanks of their own, ready for transportation to different zoos. We had been lucky, with both the stag and the shark morphs. I was beginning to wonder how long our luck was going to last.

"How are we going to eat?" asked Ferdie.

"What?" I asked, only half listening. Having acquired the all the animals we needed, we had now left the wildlife park, morphed back to crow and were now loitering about in the car park of a nearby closed-down supermarket, having demorphed behind the dumpsters. I had suggested we morph crow as not only was it more familiar than morphing our bird-of-prey animals, but safer too, seeing that we had to fly in close formation for a fairly short distance. The place was deserted. The supermarket was once one of those big, out-of-town ones, accessible only by a slip-road off the dual-carriage way, so was pretty much in the middle of nowhere. I thought it would be a safe enough place to demorph – as long as the CCTV wasn't still working.

Ferdie was now staring at the backdoors of the supermarket, quite possibly contemplating breaking in and looking for food to steal.

"I said, how are we going to eat? We don't have any money. And I'm sure once we get into the wilderness, there won't be any Pizza Express to scrounge from."

I frowned. To be honest, I hadn't really thought about eater. Nor sleeping, or washing or anything like that. I just had this image of us almost continuously as animals on the move, flying as geese or hawks or whatever.

"Um, I'm not sure," I replied. "I guess we'll just eat in our animal morphs." We obviously couldn't bring any food – or anything for that matter. Stags don't look so good wearing Tellytubby backpacks.

"Does eating in morph count for when we're not eating as human?" Philip asked.

"Well, I don't know. I don't know if whatever we do in our animal morphs has an effect on our human bodies." Except possibly dying, I added to myself. "I guess if it doesn't have any effect, we'll have to live off what we find in the wild."

"Good grief," said Philip, "you think you can just survive on berries and stuff?"

"I thought maybe we could use our morphs to find food to eat as humans. Like fish, or whatever."

"Fish! How are you going to cook it? Or maybe you're just going to eat it raw?"

"I don't know, alright!" I yelled. "Why don't you tell us how, Philip?"

"Well you're the one who seems to be leading this little charade! Or at least, leading the easy bits then handing over the responsibility over to someone else when you don't know what to do! Can't you think of something yourself!"

I glared at Philip. No'one yet had actually elected me as leader – there hadn't been a vote or anything like that. Nor had the topic of leadership even arisen. But I realised I'd begun to take on the role nevertheless, strongly suggesting what morphs to acquire, practically forcing the others into doing what I did. I supposed, whether it was originally a conscious thought or not, that someone had to be leader, and I was the best one for the job. But it didn't have to be me, did it? I could easily off the load onto one of the others. Philip, despite his occasional difficultly to get along with, had a good, strategic brain, had led us without any problems to the wildlife park and had helped find himself and Asha some pretty excellent morphs. He'd probably make a very good, if somewhat dominating, leader. Why shouldn't it be him?

"Well fine, why don't you make the decisions? You can be Captain."

But Philips' argument quickly evaporated. He looked at me for a second with a cold, blank stare.

"I'm not leading anything," he said.

This surprised me. I thought he'd be raring to go.

"I'll put my suggestions in," he said. "I'll listen to what you guys have to say, I'll guide you anywhere you want. But I'm not making the decisions. Nor am I being leader."

Great. What was wrong with this guy? One minute he's yelling at me for not getting any answers. Then he's practically telling me to give up my leadership. But, then, as I offer him the opportunity, goes quiet and refuses! I sucked in my breath sharply and rolled my eyes in annoyance. I could see Ferdie and Asha's eyes watching me. Asha looked very confused. But Ferdie looked a little anxious. Almost as if he knew of something I didn't; that he was watching what was going on in us beneath the surface.

"Right well, we'll leave that topic alone then." I glanced at Ferdie. "Does anyone mind if I do this?"

Ferdie was quiet for a second, but then he smiled his cheeky grin and said, "Course not, Sam. I think you'll make a great leader. Show us the way, oh mighty one!" he laughed.

I looked at Asha. "Ash?"

Asha blinked and shrugged her shoulders. "I ain't bovvered about who's leader, as long as it's not me." Good enough, I supposed. I glanced at Philip.

"You know what I think," he said. I sighed. At least that was settled. "Now, where were-"

But I never got to finish, because Asha suddenly interrupted my words with a terrified scream.


	22. Chapter 22: The Visser

Chapter 22

"Oh, my god!" cried Asha.

I spun round, facing Asha's direction, wondering what had horrified her. I don't know what I was expecting, but what I saw wasn't it.

A large shape was heading directly our way. Rounded, with darkened windows, painted a reflective chrome-like colour which made it difficult to see with the sun's rays reflecting off it. It was flying, very low to the ground, coming closer and closer. I heard the noise of its' engines – and a familiar _chop-chop-chop_.

"It's a helicopter!" yelled Philip.

The helicopter flew onwards towards us, coming at us like a huge, malevolent bird. It was about a hundred feet away, and was quickly descending. I could just about make out a woman, who had parked her car in the lay-by to answer her phone, staring at the choppers with her mouth hanging open. Then, she took off at neck-break speed.

"It's going to land" said Ferdie. "Wait – there are more of them!"

I looked out beyond the helicopter, and to my horror, could make out at least two others in the sky behind it. One of them was the same reflective grey of the first. The other was black, and was much larger than both. All three were preparing to land.

"Sam! The road!" I could just make out Philip's voice above the sound of the choppers. I spun round and watched the road that runs around the side of the supermarket. Two large vans were heading at top speed for the car park. They turned sharply at the roundabout – one of them narrowly missing another driver – and turned into the car park, brakes screeching as the drivers slammed on the brakes.

"I don't like the look of this!" I yelled.

"Too right," agreed Ferdie. "Controllers!"

"They've found us!" I had no idea how. But we couldn't afford to get caught. "Everyone – get back behind the dumpsters. Keep out of sight! Get ready to morph birds!"

Asha swore. "Too late!" she said. "They know we're here!"

I watched, sweating, as the helicopters landed. The drivers of the vans – one of which, I noticed, was one of those Securitas vans used to transport prisoners – jumped out and began running towards the helicopters. They were men of around thirty I guessed, dressed in black combats and jacket, one of them wearing reflective sunglasses. Both, I saw, were carrying strange, futuristic guns. One ran round to the back of his van and pulled open the doors. At least five more figures, some very large looking, jumped out and followed him. They were the bladed aliens we saw on the spaceship, I had the pleasure of noticing. _Out in the open on Earth_? I guess we were pretty valuable to the Yeerks if they risked bystanders sighting creatures that were definitely, by their very nature, alien.

The helicopters landed; their blades creating a wind that sent the strewn rubbish and leaves flying into the air. The doors of the helicopters opened, and out jumped several more figures, also carrying weapons. The combat men ran up to one of the figures, running with him on both sides. One of them pointed in our direction. I caught his eye and went tense with fear.

"They've spotted us!" I said to the others.

"Shall we morph bird, or what?" yelled Ferdie.

"No! They'll shoot us down! Wait just a moment, till we know whether to fight or run."

"Visser!" one of them shouted over the noise of the still-rotating blades of the choppers. "Target location confirmed, sir! We have the fugitives who possess the morphing power!"

_Visser? As in, Visser Five?_

As the figures came nearer, I saw they were much taller than the combat men. I swallowed as I realised what they were.

"Hork-Bajir Controllers!" I yelled, looking at the taller creature surrounded by his henchmen. There were also several similar creatures joining him who had been riding in the back of the van.

"What?" shouted Asha.

"Those creatures – they're Hork-Bajir! And that one on the right is Visser Five! I remember the Andalite telling us Visser five has a Hork-Bajir body – and that guy's Visser Five!"

"Weapons at the ready," yelled the Visser. "Dracon Beams to Level Three! Stun only! We want these fugitives alive." He paused, allowing a faint grin to spread over his face. "Shoot when ready."


	23. Chapter 23: Ready To Rumble!

Chapter 23

"Battle morphs, now!" I yelled. I concentrated hard on the leopard inside me, praying for the changes to begin. I crouched further behind the dumpster as I felt soft, spotted fur appear on my body. The short period whilst morphing was when we were our most vulnerable. The changes were happening quickly, but not fast enough. My eyes transformed and my eyesight improved. My ears became round and slid up the side of my face. A long tail shot for my behind. But I could still not feel the power of the leopard inside me! I cried out in frustration. The morph was happening in the wrong order! I needed claws and teeth – not good senses! I willed the morph to concentrate on these points, picturing the more powerful parts of the leopard in my mind. I almost cried out in relief as I finally felt my body become stronger – layers of muscles rippling over my body.

--Come on guys, that's it!-- I said to my friends. --You're doing great!--

--We haven't had any practise with these morphs!-- shouted Ferdie.

--No choice,-- I said. --Use the animal's brain to help you.--

Beside me, I could see the others changing shape, taking on faster and more powerful shapes. Philip's morph was going well – he was almost done. I could see him growing, long, thick shaggy hair which completely covered his huge, bulky body, nearly touching the ground. Enormous curved horns grew out from his head. He snorted. He was a musk ox.

Ferdie was undergoing similar changes to me. His leg and elbow joints suddenly switched direction and he landed on all fours. Long teeth could be seen growing in his mouth. Huge, retractable claws shot out between his fur-covered fingers. Little tufts of fur grew from his ears. His was a lynx.

Asha was shrinking slightly, although not by a lot. She grunted as she fell forwards onto her hands and knees. Course, sandy coloured spread over her body, a light mane working its way from her head to her shoulder blades. Her shoulders haunched up, her hips becoming lower. A dog-like snout was becoming visible from her rapidly shifting mouth and nose. Long, sharp teeth appeared. Her eyes became black and angry. She was a hyena.

I felt the mind of the leopard kick in. It was fairly calm, which was the complete opposite of I felt. But it was wary of the enclosed space it was in. It was used to the huge, open plains of the Serengeti. This also conflicted with my own thoughts. My human mind felt safer behind the bins. The last thing I wanted to do was run out into the open. It was also rather territorial. It didn't like being around other big cats. I glanced nervously at Ferdie, now fully lynx. He growled softly, still under the control of the cat's instincts. I snapped myself back to reality.

--Guys, be careful with the animal's minds. We don't know how they'll be to control. Don't listen to their instincts about being around other animals. Just get ready to do as I say.--

--Easier said than done,-- said Philip. --My ox is going mad in here. Very skittish. Getting angry.-- He tossed his huge, shaggy head, almost impaling Asha's hyena body.

Even though I was terrified and not too sure what I was about to do, I was becoming more confident. My weak human senses had been replaced by the sharp cat's senses. I could now hear every work the Controllers were saying to each other. My sense of smell was also very good. I feared I would be smelling spilt blood before long. But best of all, I was no longer confined to my slow, puny, human body. This gave me confidence. The leopard was a powerful animal; it knew what it could take and what it couldn't.

--Right, everyone,-- I barked. --Get ready to attack. We'll try and make this quick. Get out of hear as quickly as possible. Try and disable the Controllers – stop them from using their weapons. Don't worry too much about killing them. Asha, Ferdie, you guys go for the humans. Philip, we'll go for the Hork-Bajir.-- I gulped. I couldn't believe what I was saying. A day ago, I would have been the last person to get into a fight. And now… But I didn't let any of this show in my voice. I had to make the other's believe this was the normal thing to do. No uncertainties. No turning back. Just in, out, and done.

--Keep out of the way of the Visser,-- Philip advised. He's probably armed to the teeth.--

--Ok, guys, this is it. We're gonna get out of here. I won't let anyone get caught.-- I took a deep breath. --Attack!--


	24. Chapter 24: The Will Of A Warrior

Chapter 24

If you've never been in a fight, let me tell you something. It does something to you. You can feel a difference in yourself, welling up inside. Whether it's the most ancient of all animal survival instincts – fight or flight – or simply the pure human need to succeed – there's no denying the changes you can feel in your body, whether it's human or animal. My heart rate increased. My muscles tightened. My tail twitched. I expected to become confused and uncertain, unsure what to do and whether or not I could do it. But I realised I was seeing the world with an unbelievable crystal-clear clarity. And I'm not just talking about the brilliant eyesight of the leopard. I could feel exactly what was going on around me. I knew who was where, what was what, what was about to happen. I could hear Asha growling and yapping. Ferdie yowling and slashing. Philip grunting and galloping. Hork-Bajir bellowing, leaping towards us five-feet at a time. And the human Controllers, shielding themselves behind the helicopter, firing their weapons at anything that moved. The four of us, in a deadly ten-to four combat, possibly to the death. A sickening sight of blood, teeth and claws.

I released the tension in my muscles and ran towards the nearest Hork-Bajir. If I hadn't been so intent on the battle, I would have been amazed by the power and grace of the cat. I was so strong, yet so supple. I was like liquid metal. Nothing could stop me. My paws hit the ground, the muscles in my legs propelling me forward. It took almost nothing out of me. I could cover almost ten feet in a single stride. I could go on forever.

"Arrgh!" I leapt up, straight into the face of the Hork-Bajir. A seven foot leap into the air – and I didn't even notice! I ignored my own commands, and went straight for the creatures' long, snake-like neck. My teeth clamped down, piercing the thick brown hide. The alien went limp. I landed my four paws back on to the ground, and, swinging my frying-pan paws, kicked the weapon out of the way. The alien stopped breathing. One down. Goodness knows how many to go. I ignored the sickening realisation building up inside of me as I took the Hork-Bajir's life and went for another, this time restraining myself.

--Sam! Behind you!-- Philip's voice in my head. I spun round my cat body in one effortless twist, catching sight of the nine-hundred pounds of Philip's ox body snorting and raging beside me, continuously ramming his two Hork-Bajir with his massive horns. The Hork-Bajir's blades nicked him, but were unable to do much damage through the thick fur covering his body.

I saw the other Hork-Bajir behind me, his wrist blades attempting to swipe me.

I growled and jutted forwards. The Hork-Bajir leapt backwards, his huge elbow blades almost slicing through the middle of my face. He levelled his weapon – what the Visser had called a Dracon beam – at me, and fired.

I dived to my right. The red beam hit the ground beside me, opening up a small crater and scorching the pavement. Bits of gravel flew into my eyes. A human would never have been able to carry out that kind of manoeuvre. But then, I wasn't human. I stood up, facing my opponent. He'd lost his nerve having missed his shot at me. I took advantage of his hesitation. I leant back on my hind legs, feeling the incredible strength build up like molten steel. Then, I released the power and leapt for his face. My claws dug into his eyes, blinding him. He staggered back in pain, crying out in agony. I jumped off his, and sprung back. I panted for a moment, getting my breath back. Leopards have greater endurance than cheetahs, but we're definitely not wolves.

--Sam! Help!-- It was Asha's voice, somewhere to my left. She was being shot at by too human controllers with those laser-style Dracon beams. She was dodging, back and forth, left and right, but they were slowly backing her into a corner. I could see a couple of semi-circular burn marks on her flank where the beams had hit her.

--Coming, Asha!—I called, running towards her, ignoring the aches of my tired muscles. I shot up behind one of the two controllers and leapt, front legs stretched out, and hit him in the back. I tried to ignore the cry of 'coward' from my conscience as the controller hit the ground, face first. I grabbed the weapon and flicked it towards Asha. She took it between her teeth and, using the mighty bone crushing jaws of the hyena, crunched down on the hard, white plastic. She slung it away. The Dracon beam was no use to anyone, now. Asha laughed her hyena cry and glared at the remaining controller. Now one-on-one, Asha seemed to gain confidence, and loped straight towards him, grabbing his leg in her jaws, clamping down as if it were the Dracon beam. The controller fell, yelling in pain. His weapon dropped to the floor, and Asha kicked it away. . She wasn't graceful. Even though hyenas are actually closely related to cats, they moved more like a dog, lumbering forwards on their long legs. But they have good endurance, and, although injured and shaken, Asha wasn't loosing much energy like my leopard morph was.

--Argh!-- Ferdie! Whilst Asha had practically beaten her two opponents and Philip far from loosing, Ferdie was not so lucky. He was limping; one of his paws a bloody mess. He looked as if he had been hit by the Dracons several times. He had given up attacking, and was now just concentrating on escaping.

--Hold on, Ferdie!-- I called. --Guys – I'm going in to help Ferdie! Asha, get out as soon as you can, morph something small! Don't fly – they're still able to shoot upwards! Hide! Philip – you stay ox, go for the rest of the humans. I'll hold off Visser Five.--


	25. Chapter 25: The Fifth Fugitive

Chapter 25

I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I knew I couldn't keep the others in the fight for any longer than was necessary. The fight was going reasonably well, considering this was the first time we'd been confronted by the Yeerks. I watched the others retreat as I ran in to assist Ferdie, leaping towards the nearest Controller. He fired his Dracon at me but missed, hitting an abandoned car. Shattered glass flew into the air behind me.

Suddenly –

"Help! Someone!" A cry! I paused, my teeth inches from one of the human controller's neck. He lay on his back, I stood on top of him.

"Help me! Get me out of here!" The voice again! It reminded me of being back on the spaceship. Faint – to faint form human ears to pick up – but nearby. The Securitas van! I hit the Controller with the back of my frying-pan paws, knocking him cold. Ferdie, with a short burst of speed, ran towards the other human-Controller, leapt, and using his excellent eyesight and depth perception, bit down hard of the man's arm. The Controller cried out in pain, and dropped his Dracon beam. He doubled over, clutching his arm, then slumped forward weakly as he lost a lot of blood.

--My god, I hope I haven't killed him!-- moaned Ferdie.

--Never mind about that now, Flawless!-- I replied. --Find the others.-- I looked around frantically, then aught sight of Asha behind the dumpsters. She was shrinking, growing short sandy coloured fur. She was becoming a gerbil.

--Morph something small, like your ferret.-- I called to Ferdie. I looked at the van. With the excellent night-sight of the leopard, I could make out the shadowy shape of a person behind the tinted glass. A girl! She was crying, banging frantically on the window. A trap? I wondered. A human-Controller acting as prisoner to tempt us from saving her? No, I decided. It was highly unlikely she was part of a trap. This battle had been the result of an ambush – the Yeerks had attacked us – not laid a trap, hoping we'd walk straight into it. We'd had no choice about the situation.

--Philip!-- I shouted. --Where are you?--

--Disabling the helicopters!-- he said. I watched as he repeatedly rammed, with his huge horns, the underside of one of the helicopters. I would have smiled if I'd had a mouth. 'Disabling' was certainly a euphemism.

--Well, I need you to do that to the Securitas van, if you don't mind! No more injuries if we can help it – there's something else for us to take care of now!-- He backed away from the helicopter – inside which was an unconscious Visser Five, knocked cold by Philip's battering – and turned his attention towards the front of the van.

--The back doors!-- I corrected. --And not too madly – there's a girl inside!--

--A girl?-- said Philip. --What are you taking about?--

Suddenly, it clicked. --That second alien – Barnod – didn't he say something about there being five humans?--

--How should I know!-- yelled Philip, but he hit the back door of the van anyway, with horns like two curved battering vans. I guessed the ox's eyesight wasn't all that great, since Philip kept missing the doors.

--This girl – she must be the fifth human the Andalite mentioned!-- I guessed the Skrit-Na, or whatever it was that had kidnapped us, had been examining the girl at the time Eramas the Andalite rescued us. Now she was in the hands of the Yeerks. I shuddered. God only knew what she's been through.

All of a sudden – _Wham_! The back doors of the Securitas van broke off their hinges, slamming into the van with a clatter. I leapt into the truck – I was smaller and more agile than Philip's ox.

--Keep an eye on the Visser,-- I told Philip.

The inside of the van contained two little cubicles, each about two feet square. The walls were thick steel – designed to hold even the most violent of prisoners. Both had thick bolts on the outside of their door. The door of one was half open. I could see spare Dracon beams and other scary looking weapons piled up inside. The door of the other was looked. I could easily hear the girl on the other side, shouting and screaming for help.

--Hold on!-- I called out. I didn't know if the girl would hear – or understand my thought-speak. I didn't know what she'd think of an army of animals coming to rescue her either. But I hoped, considering that, she too, had been abducted by aliens, that this event would seem almost normal by comparison.


	26. Chapter 26: Plunged Into The Deep End

Chapter 26

I grabbed the bolt between my teeth and slid it open. The door swung open and the girl burst through, covered in sweat and panting heavily. She was about the same age as Asha, with long, bushy red hair and huge hazel eyes. She was flushed, her cheeks bright red.

--Come on,-- I coaxed. --You'll going to be Ok – we've come to rescue you,-- I said rather lamely. --But we don't exactly have much time.-- Her eyes widened in disbelief as she realised the animals in front of her spoke with human voices.

--Follow me,-- I said. The girl obeyed. She was wearing exactly what we'd been wearing inside the spaceship – the horrible white monstrosity given to us courtesy of the Skrit-Na. She followed me to the sheltered area behind the dumpsters, wincing as the gravel and broken glass cut her bare feet.

"Who are you?" she breathed as we ran towards the others. God only knew how we were going to get her out of this mess alive. I hadn't exactly planned on escaping with a non-morphing Yeerk escapee.

--We're humans,-- I replied. "I'm Samantha. There's four of us – we're fellow passengers of alien-chaos airlines."

"You were on the spaceship?" she asked, taking no account of the fact that although I'd said we were humans, she was now hiding alongside a leopard and an ox. Philip and I were still in battle morphs, back behind the bins. My leopard nose could smell a ferret among the stench of the rubbish – so I assumed Ferdie and Asha were around somewhere.

--Yup,-- I said. --This will sound totally mad, but we were given the morphing power by, well, a _good_ alien on board the space-ship, so that we could escape. We're on the run from, well, the _bad_ aliens now, but hey, at least we can turn into animals.--

I knew I was probably making no sense to the girl whatsoever – I was just spilling out the words in my panic and barely making sense to myself – but the girl seemed to understand.

"Did you use a blue box?" she asked.

--What?--

"The blue box," she repeated. I stared at her. "Did a blue alien, with, err, a _tail_, make you touch a blue box and say you could turn into animals?"

This girl was either catching on very fast, or knew more than I thought.

--Yeah!-- I said. --The morphing power. It's- -- But I was interrupted before I could continue.

"I've got it," she said.

--What?-- I cried, for the second time.

"The alien gave me the morphing power with that blue box thing! He said – god, what was it? – that I could acquire and morph any animal I could touch. He told me to acquire him to fight my way free if I was captured by the Yeerks, and that he's try and get me home to find, well you four, I guess he meant. But it was all such chaos, and I didn't understand a word of it, and he told me to touch him - but he was killed before I could get a chance!"

I was silent for a moment.

--The alien died?-- I asked, shocked. Even though we had barely spent any time together in that hellish spaceship, I had already though of a bond connecting us. He had, after all, given us a great power in the hopes that we would survive.

"Aye, he was hit by one of those laser beam things," she cried. "Then, I was captured by two of those huge, bladed monster things- "

--Hork-Bajir-- I said automatically.

"- and I was carted off back to Earth at gunpoint, and then you guys turned up!"

I breathed deeply, unable to comprehend what I was hearing. I looked at her, holding her eye contact.

--What's your name?-- I asked.

"Maggie," replied the girl, speaking in a strong Scottish accent.

--Maggie - have you managed to acquire anything at all?-- I asked, fearing the answer.

"No, nothing!" she cried. "I think the alien that captured me – the blue-tailed guy said they were called Yerks, or Yorks, or something – have guessed that I have the morphing power and have had laser guns pointed at my face all day! I kept hoping a spider, or something, would creep into my cell, and I could morph it, but…"

I snapped into action.

--Ferdie, use your ferret morph and get me a live spider, or bug – anything small! Then, morph to raptor! Everyone else, raptors too!--

--On it!-- shouted Ferdie. The others and I began to demorph. I sunk further back into the shadows, trying not to look at the horrified expression on Maggie's face. I swallowed in apprehension and guilt. Her first morph would be worse than any we'd done so far.

A minute later, three of us were human. Ferdie returned a moment later, a large, ugly beetle in his mouth. I held out my hand, and he dropped it in to it. I put my other hand over my palm, feeling the beetle's little legs tickling my skin as it tried to get out.

"Maggie, I don't have time to explain anything, so you're gonna have to trust me on this one. I need to you hold this beetle here-" I passed the beetle into her trembling hands – "and concentrate on it. Keep concentrating on it until you feel your body begin to change. Close your eyes if you want." She shut her eyes and concentrated on the beetle. She panted in short, sharp breaths.

As I morphed to lanner falcon, and Ferdie back to human and on to hobbie, Maggie slowly became the beetle. Her skin hardened over, blackening, like it had been covered in lacquer. Her legs became thinner and covered in ugly black hairs. She opened an eye.

"Arrghhhh!" she cried. "No!" The morphing stopped suddenly. I clenched my fists, trying not to panic. Ok, so this was her very first morph, and she'd had about zero information, but we really didn't have time for rehearsals.

--Keep concentrating!-- I barked. I was almost fully falcon now, my lips hardening into the wickedly sharp beak of the raptor. --You're doing fine!--

Maggie resumed concentration. The changes restarted. My eyesight was sharpening, which allowed me to see every sicken detail. Her face hardened like the rest of her body, bulging outwards. Her jaw grew absurdly, becoming a huge pair of slashing black mandibles. Her eyes grew huge and shattered into the compound eyes of the beetle. Antennae shot from her forehead. An extra pair of fully-insect legs shot out of her chest, like something out of a horror movie. She shrunk rapidly, until she was a barely-visible speck on the ground. All the time, she was moaning and crying, not noticing when she'd switched over to thought-speak. I tried to emphasise, but then I saw something that had turned my blood stone cold.


	27. Chapter 27: Asha's Sacrifice

Chapter 27

Visser Five had regained consciousness. His henchmen were still lying about on the ground, either out cold or in too much pain to fight. But the Visser himself, in his huge, stolen blade-covered body of his Hork-Bajir was walking slowly towards us, eyes scanning the dumpsters for us, Dracon beam in hand.

Maggie was almost fully beetle. I yelled out at her, to distract her from the instincts of the beetle.

--Maggie!-- You're there! You're beetle!--

No reply. Her little beetle body scuttled about aimlessly on the ground. The real beetle has scampered under a stone. I fixed my powerful raptor eyes on her, desperate not to lose her. My falcon eyes, from what I'd seen so far, were great for long-distance viewing, but not brilliant for short distance viewing.

--Maggie! I need you to crawl onto my talon!--

Still nothing.

--She hasn't gained control of the beetle's mind yet,-- said Philip. I jumped. I'd almost forgotten the other's were still here. They were shifting around, nervously flapping their wings, waiting for my instructions.

--Right, we'll we've got no time to wait,-- I snapped. --Visser Five is about to say hello. –Philip, Ferdie, Asha – you three get out of here. Try and split up – give the Visser more targets to aim for – then get as high as you can, as fast as you can. Use the bird's brain to help you!--

--Yeah!-- Ferdie agreed. --I'm sure there's an instinct for get us the heck out of here!--

--Guys, go!-- I yelled. --I'll get Maggie out of here.--

The others took off. Asha flew straight upwards, like a rocket. Philip and Ferdie darted out on either side of her both turning sharp lefts-and-rights as they rose, given the Visser a harder target to aim for.

I couldn't wait any longer. I grasped the beetle-Maggie in my sharp talons, forming a miniature cave out of which I hope she wouldn't fall. Then, I flapped my wings, and took off.

The falcon's eyes were fantastic. I could see every tiny detail from the air. My hearing, too was razor-sharp. I could hear police sirens in the distance, heading this way. Ironic. Wait this long for someone to call the police. But it was great to get in the air again. There's nothing like the pure, supple grace of the leopard, but you're always stuck on the ground, moving in two dimensions. Being a falcon gave me unbelievable freedom and impossible manoeuvrability. Unfortunately, to my human mind, this only increased my worry. For I could see exactly what was going on below me. I could see the Visser, aiming his Dracon beam at me. He seemed to have got hold of some kind of long-range viewfinder, as his aiming was perfect. I could see straight down the barrel of the futuristic revolver. Worse, straining my neck, I could make out a little pinprick of red light on the underside of my belly. A laser sight target finder. Asha seemed to have noticed this, too.

--Sam!-- she cried out, turning backwards and flapping towards me. --He's aiming right at you!--

--Keep going!-- I called out to her. Philip and Ferdie were about a quarter of a mile ahead now. I couldn't see Asha. I swooped a hard right. My falcon brain controlled the move perfectly, keeping me balanced in the air as I performed a move a fighter-pilot would admire. But the Visser seemed unconcerned. He moved his Dracon beam, following my flight path. The little red dot was still visible on my feathers.

--Guys – you have to keep going!-- I shouted. --The Visser is aiming at me – I'm going to have to stop flying in a straight line so I can lose his aim.--

But, even though I had the body of one of the fastest and most agile birds of the sky, I was unable to loose the aim of the Visser. Whatever advanced technology he had to keep his aim, I couldn't defeat it. I thought-spoke to Maggie, not knowing whether or not she could hear me, or if I was still even holding her.

--Maggie – I don't know if I'm going to make it!-- I cried. -- might have to drop you – so if you can, get a grip on the beetle's brain and fly! Find a wood or something, demorph. The other's will find you.--

I knew what I was saying was highly unlikely. It was a long shot her even being able to work her wings this new in morph, let alone find a safe place to demorph. I carried on flapping, twisting, twirling in the air, exhausted, desperately trying to loose the Vissers' aim. But it was no use. My fantastic falcon eyes saw as the Visser placed his huge, leathery finger on the trigger. Saw as the muscles tightened to pull it. Saw my death. Saw-

"Kweeee-ik-ik-ik-ik-ik!"

Asha! The calling cry of her merlin! I spun violently in the air, my eyes locked on her raptor body. She was about fifty feet up, diving rapidly towards the Visser.

--Asha! _No!_-- I cried in disbelief. But I could do nothing. I watched as Asha opened her talons, and closed in on the Vissers' face, talons raking his eyes. I watched as Visser Five cried in pain. Watched as the laser sight of his Dracon disappeared from my feathers. I powered my wings and climbed upwards through the atmosphere as fast as I could, determined the Vissers' laser sight not find me again.

--Yes!-- shouted Asha in both defeat and triumph. --Sam - get out of here!--

I forced myself not to fly back down to stop her from what she was about to do. Instead, I watched in horror as the Visser took aim again. But this time, not at me.

I saw the tiny dot of the laser sight appear of Asha's belly. Heard the sizzle of the Dracon beam as it scorched through the air.

And then, watched as a small, brown form plummeted towards the ground.

--Ash!-- I screamed. --Asha!--


	28. Author's Notes

Author's Notes

Hey guys! That's so much for reading my fan fic – I hope you enjoyed it!

Sorry to leave you hanging at the end like that – I love the idea of a good cliff hanger!

There's going to be another three stories in this series, when I get round to writing them, as we follow the fugitive Animorphs across Britain, the Atlantic, and across America in search for Jake and co. I know this one was a bit hard going – a lot of information and not a huge amount of action. But it will be much more action packed in the next three I can assure you! **My second story - The Confrontation - is now finished!**

Disclaimer: (yeah, yeah, yeah…) Most of what you read here is owned by K.A. Applegate – the Andalites, and Yeerks, the terminology. And of course Jake and co. But Sam, Philip, Ferdie, Asha and Maggie are all mine. My creation, my guys, and I can do whatever I like with them. Hehe.

PS. Just in case the thought had ever crossed your mind… I'm planning to do a Fan Art as the 'front cover' to this story, it should appear on Elfwood (see http/elfwood.lysator.liu.se/fanq/j/e/jennalo3/jennalo3.html) sometime (although god knows when I'll get round to it!). Will probably be Samantha turning into the Lanner falcon, or maybe her greyhound. Not sure yet. Any suggestions?

**Animorphs Fan Art Done! **I have drawn Sam morphing into a lanner falcon. I have submitted it to Elfwood (address above) but as they take ages to be moderated it probably won't be up til September! So if you really want to see it, I've posted it on my MSN space at:

http/spaces. spaces, then 'Aizxana') Sorry about this - it's the only other place I can put pics. You'll have to traipse through loads of rubbish and boring stuff…(it's in My Art and Other Stuff) but if you have the time I'd love some reviews of it! (Oh, you have to have a Hotmail address to see it…damn these corporations!)

**Thanks to:**

LittleMidgett – I guess, no they probably wouldn't! So I've changed chapter 21 and 22 a little to make it a bit more likely! Thanks for that! And come to think of it, I'll probably draw Sam as the falcon.

Walkatdog – oops, I'm always making silly bloopers like that! Thanks for pointing that out, I think I've corrected it all now!

In the Second Story: 

_The Fugitives make their way across the mountains of Wales, but encounter more than the bargained for along the way._

You'll be seeing a lot more of Maggie, and will find out a little more about Philip's reluctance to being the leader. They'll be new morphs, and adventures and lots of hilarious antics from the lovely Flawless, who'll be narrating the next one.


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